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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 









Mr. Thissell Found Fault with 
Grandmother's Cooking 


Trudy and Timothy 
Foresters 


By BERTHA CURRIER PORTER 

Author of “Trudy and Timothy” 
“Trudy and Timothy Out-of-Doors” 
“Trudy and Timothy and the Trees” 



Illustrated by 
MAY AIKEN 



THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 
1922 



COPYRIGHT 
192a BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Trudy and Timothy, Foresters 


Made in the U. S. A. 



C£< 6 22 

©C1AG80096 

/ Vt© ( 


Introduction 


Dear Boys and Girls: 

Those of you who have read “ Trudy and 
Timothy ” and “ Trudy and Timothy, Out of 
Doors ” must know by this time how Todd’s 
Ferry looks, and you must feel as though you 
know everyone in the village. 

You may remember that in “ Trudy and Tim- 
othy and the Trees ” the children went to Wash- 
ington and learned many wonderful things about 
their country and its government and how to 
combat the lumber companies which were menac- 
ing the wonderful old trees about Todd’s F erry . 
Forest rangers taught them how to know the 
danger and made them realize how terrible it 
would be for their little town if all the beautiful 
forest were laid waste. 

In this story Trudy and Timothy prove that 
they can help the forest ranger; that they can 
help an embittered old man realize that there are 


4 


INTRODUCTION 


good things in life and that he will be happier by 
helping others. You will learn who Carmencita 
is, how the boys built a shack in the woods and 
how Trudy and Timothy and their little friends 
helped save the woods about Todd’s Ferry from 
fire. 


Contents 


I. 

Play-Time . 

• 

• 

• 

• 

9 

n. 

Carmencita 

• 

• 

• 

• 

21 

hi. 

Acres and Plans 

• 

• 

• 


35 

IY. 

Up the Mountain 

• 


• 


48 

V. 

The Grown-Ups’ Mystery 


• 


61 

YI. 

Wanted— A Clock-Man 

. 




75 

YII. 

The Camping Trip . 

. 

• 



88 

YIII. 

The Secret Told 

. 




99 

IX. 

The Clock-Man Comes— 

and Goes 

t 


112 

X. 

Amos Lines a Bee 

. 

• 

• 


125 

XI. 

On the Lookout 

. 

• 

• 

• 

138 

XII. 

Find the Clock-Man 

• 

• 

# 

• 

151 

XIII. 

Find Timothy . 

• 

• 

• 

• 

162 

XYI. 

“ Fire ! Fire ! ” 

• 

• 

• 

• 

173 

XY. 

Gone Again 

• 

• 

• 

• 

187 

XYI. 

Timothy’s Birthday Party 

• 

• 

• 

200 








































































































































' 


. 

* 











































































































































































































































































































































































































Illustrations 


Mr. Thissell Found Fault With Grandmother’s 

Cooking Frontispiece 


They Shouted to All Who Passed Them . 

Out From the Shed Door Waddled Timothy . 
“ Here’s a Deserted House ! ” . 

‘‘Fire! Fire! Oh, Girls, Quick ! ” 


PAGE 

. 51 

. 90 

. 131 
. 175 


Trudy and Timothy, Foresters 











Trudy and Timothy, Foresters 


CHAPTER I 

PLAY-TIME 

“ Timothy ! Timothy ! — Oh, Mrs. Todd, 

where is Timothy? ” 

Trudy, Claire and Isabelle, followed by Fran- 
cis, dashed into Grandmother’s kitchen. She 
was washing the breakfast dishes, while Dilly, 
the cat, lapped her milk from the saucer under 
the wooden sink. Dilly flew out the door, but 
Grandmother, who was used to children, only 
looked over her spectacles and said, “ Timothy? — 
I think he went out to the barn.” 

“ Here I am,” said Timothy himself, coming 
in from the shed. “ Gee, I’m glad you came 
over.” 

“ You’ll be gladder when you hear the news,” 
cried Trudy. “What do you think? Claire 
and Isabelle are going to stay ! ” 

9 


10 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ With Trudy, and her mother and father.” 

“All summer, except when we have to go down 
to the North Shore for the picture, and then Mr. 
Sims is coming up after us in the car, and bring 
us right back again.” 

“And we're going to have some company at 
the big house, too,” said Francis. “ We just got 
a cable that Father and Mother are on the way 
home.” 

“ Oh, Francis, I’m so glad,” said Grandmother. 
“ They haven’t seen you since you could walk. 
I think that’s just as nice as it can be.” 

“ Well,” said Timothy, “ come on out to the 
barn. I’ve got to do my chores, but we can talk, 
and plan what we’ll do first. I’ve been up in the 
shed attic this morning, fixing a thing to make 
fire without matches, but it won’t work yet. As 
soon as Grandfather can spare me, we’ll go down 
to Aunt Theresy’s and get Abbott to show me 
what’s the matter.” 

“ Wait a minute,” interrupted Grandfather, 
who had come in while they were all talking at 
once; “let me get this thing straight. Do I 
understand that Claire and Isabelle are going to 


FORESTERS 11 

have a vacation, and are planning to spend it 
here? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Then I think Timothy would better take one 
too, don’t you, Mother? He’s been working 
pretty hard this summer, earning money to buy 
timber, and has shown a fairly good business 
head. He needs a rest.” 

Timothy’s eyes grew round. Grandmother 
wiped the dishes, saying, “ There, Father, don’t 
tease them. Say your say, and be done with it.” 

“ All right. Timothy, I shan’t need you any 
more this season. I’ve hired Ben Dobson to help 
me with the work, and I want you to play just as 
hard as ever you can with all your friends.” 

Then maybe there wasn’t a jubilation. Tim- 
othy flew out the door and turned handsprings 
all over the door-yard, with Claire close behind. 
Isabelle hugged Trudy, and Francis ran toward 
the telephone. “ Let’s get Belle,” he cried, 
“ and have a picnic right now.” 

Grandfather came to the door. 

“ Stop a minute,” he called. “ There is one 
little piece of work I’d like to have both Trudy 


12 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


and Timothy do. I’ve talked about it with 
Trudy’s father and mother, and they agree. 
Perhaps you’d all be interested — just a little bit 
of work ” 

The children looked doubtful. “ Study? ” 
This was vacation, and school did not begin until 
the end of September. 

“ It isn’t books,” Grandfather went on. “ It 
is only to learn all you can from Abbott Kimball 
while he is here working for the Government. 
You know he is going to do some looking over 
this locality for the Senator while he is here, and 
it will take him out around a good deal, probably 
up the mountain, and over toward Prattville. 
Sometimes he might be gone several days, and 
maybe camp a bit. I thought you could help 
him. Of course, if you don’t want to, why, just 
say so.” 

Grandfather had to shut the door quick, and 
hold it against them all. They hooted at him, 
and said, “You wait! Why, we thought you 
meant studying. This will be fun! May we 
really go with him and sleep out-of-doors all 
night?” 


FORESTERS 


13 


“ Go and ask him,” called Grandfather. “ Go 
over to Theresy’s now and make your plans. 
The rest of the summer is yours.” 

“ Run along,” said Francis. “ I'll catch you 
just as soon as I get Belle and ask her to come 
too.” 

“ Tell her to meet us at The Boulder,” shouted 
Timothy. 

All this happened on the morning after the 
wonderful celebration of Old Home Week had 
closed with the presentation of Aunt Theresy 
Hinton’s big pines to the town of Todd’s Ferry. 
All summer, ever since the children had found 
out the cause of Aunt Theresy’s sickness to be 
the fear of having to sell the great trees that had 
belonged to her ancestors for so many years, they 
had been working to earn money to buy them 
from her, and save them from the lumberman. 
And now, because Mr. Perkins had happened 
to overhear their plans, everything had been 
straightened out in the most marvelous manner. 
The pines were saved, and beneath them stood 
a granite marker, from the quarry on Mr. J ohn- 
ston’s hill, telling all about it. This was The 


14 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

Boulder, and the children had not seen it since 
the night before. And now there was to be no 
more work for — why, there were two more weeks, 
almost, in August, and all of September nearly, 
before school opened, and if anything should 
happen, school might be later still. Sometimes 
it was. And nothing to do but stay out-of-doors 
and play! 

They scampered down the path, by the sap- 
house where the “We Four — No More” had 
held their meetings, and where the “We Four — 
Lots More ” had been organized on that never- 
to-be-forgotten day when Mr. Perkins made up 
his mind. 

Suddenly Timothy stopped. 

“ Say,” he shouted, “ what are we thinking of? 
We haven’t elected Claire and Isabelle to the 
Club yet. All those in favor of having Claire and 
Isabelle for members of the ‘ We Four — Lots 
More’ manifest it by saying ‘Aye’ — those op- 
posed, ‘ No ’ — it is a vote. There, now you’re 
members.” 

“ But they haven’t any rings.” 

“ Oh, never mind that,” replied Isabelle; “ you 


FORESTERS 


15 


can teach us the signs and the passwords, and 
we’ll have just as good a time.’* 

“ My Santa Claus man will have some 
more rings made. I’m sure he will,” promised 
Trudy. 

They stopped at the spring for a drink, then 
hurried on to Aunt Theresy’s house. Stanley 
Blake and Abbott Kimball were boarding there; 
and as the children came up the path, they heard 
pounding in the barn. 

“ I’ll bet Stanley is making a new dark room,” 
said Timothy ; “ he’s going to take some more 
nature pictures. He wants to get some skunks. 
Skunks won’t hurt you if you don’t scare them. 
I’m going to take some skunk pictures with my 
camera, too.” 

But when they reached the barn, it was not 
Stanley or Abbott, but Amos, and he was putting 
up a partition next to the stalls. 

“ Look,” whispered Trudy to Francis. “ Oh, 
Francis, there’s Aunt Theresy’s cow back again. 
Isn’t it lovely that Aunt Theresy won’t be poor 
any more? ” 

“ Good-morning, friends,” said Amos, wiping 


16 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

his forehead. “ This is a hot day — for carpenter- 
ing or for running — what’s the news? ” 

Such a chattering! In a moment Amos cov- 
ered his ears. “ Wait,” he begged. “ One at a 
time, please! And suppose we have Theresy 
out here, so you won’t have to do it all over 
again.” 

Aunt Theresy came out from the kitchen, and 
she and Amos heard all the news. 

“ Well,” said Amos, taking up his hammer, 
“ Theresy, I suppose Todd’s Ferry is in for a 
thorough overhauling. When these youngsters 
get through with the stunts they are planning 
with Abbott, they’ll know every stick and stone 
and tree; they’ll be just as much at home sleep- 
ing on a ledge as on a feather bed; and if anyone 
gets lost in the wilds, they’ll turn Forest Rangers 
and track him by the twigs he snapped when he 
rushed through the jungle.” 

“ Well, you needn’t make fun of it,” snapped 
Timothy. “ I’m going to find Abbott now. 
Where is he? And what are you making a new 
stall for? Is Aunt Theresy going to have a 
horse? ” 


FORESTERS 


17 

“ This isn’t a stall. This is a room to 
store bad tempers in. Want to get rid of 
yours? ” 

Aunt Theresy laughed. 

“ I’m going to have another boarder,” she said, 
“ and Arnos is getting her room ready. Hurry 
up, Amos, you know she is coming on the noon 
train.” 

“ I’ll bet it is a dog,” Claire guessed. “A 
watch-dog. I love dogs.” 

“ Is she coming up on the stage? ” 

There was a chuckle from the barn door. 
Belle stood there. “ I should say not,” she cried. 
“ Pa wouldn’t carry a passenger like that — not 
for any money. She’s going to walk.” 

“Abbott has gone to meet her.” 

“ Is he going to walk up with her? ” demanded 
Timothjr. “ I’m going down to meet them.” 

Amos shouted. 

“ He doesn’t intend to walk up with her,” he 
gasped, as soon as he could speak from laughter. 
“ But perhaps he will have to. She’s a dark- 
eyed, Mexican beauty, by the name of Carmen- 
cita, and she’s used to having her own way. She 


18 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY* 

has big brown eyes, and a marvelous voice, and 
small feet ” 

“ Four of them,” explained Aunt Theresy, 
taking pity on the puzzled children. 

“I know — I know now,” Timothy cried; 
“ it’s the burro ! Oh, say, won’t she be great when 
we go camping? I’m going to get Abbott to 
show me how to tie a pack this very afternoon. 
How soon will they get here? Let’s go right 
down and meet them.” 

But he was persuaded to wait until after din- 
ner. Francis reminded him that the train did 
not get in till half-past twelve, and Amos sug- 
gested that they all go to the schoolhouse at one 
o’clock, where they would be sure to see Abbott, 
whichever way he might come — by the road, or 
up the short cut past Belle’s house to Aunt 
Theresy’s. 

That afternoon, Todd’s Ferry saw a sight that 
was to become common later but was strange 
enough now to cause a commotion from one end 
of the village to the other. Up the stage road 
came a tiny donkey, trotting swiftly along, carry- 
ing on her back a tall young man whose legs al- 


FORESTERS 


19 


most touched the ground. Her long ears winked 
back and forth, and her little feet twinkled over 
the sandy road, while she glanced from side to 
side at the unfamiliar country. When a noisy 
group of shouting children rushed out from be- 
hind a building directly at her, she stopped with 
a jerk that nearly unseated her rider. She glared 
at the people in the road. 

“Don’t come near her!” shouted Abbott. 
“ Timothy, keep away from her head — she’ll nip 
you ! — Timothy, keep away from her heels — she’ll 
kick you! — Don’t shout at her! ” 

“Aw,” said Timothy, in disgust, “ what good 
is she, anyway? Ugly old thing! I thought we 
were going to have some fun with her. I was 
going to learn to make a pack.” 

“ Give her time. She is tired and strange from 
coming on the train. Now get out of her sight, 
and I’ll take the short cut up to the house.” 

The children went back behind the school- 
house. Carmencita looked nervously about, de- 
cided after a while that it would be safe to start 
again, and trotted off. 

Abbott called back to them. 


20 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Go down and meet the afternoon stage. 
Stanley will be on it, with the tent.” 

Mr. Perkins stopped the stage, and they 
scrambled on. Stanley was talking busily about 
something, but stopped with a warning look at 
Mr. Perkins when the children came. “ Tell you 
the rest of it later,” he said, and Mr. Perkins 
nodded, remarking, “ Good scheme, all right. 
Count me in on it.” 

“ What scheme? ” asked Belle, but her father 
pretended not to hear. 

And then Stanley took their thoughts from 
everything else by saying, ‘‘Abbott has had his 
tent sent up, and IVe got some camping-kit. 
Fry-pan, kettle, plates and cups — we ought to 
have some pretty good times now. Seen Car- 
mencita yet? To-morrow we’ll try a dinner in 
the woods. All be at Aunt Theresy’s at eight 
sharp.” 


CHAPTER II 


CARMEN CITA 

The sun was just showing over the mountain, 
and Grandfather was rolling over in bed, when 
from the kitchen sounded the worst clatter and 
bang, then the noise of tinware crashing to the 
floor. 

“ What in the world? ” began Grandfather. 

“ Timothy, what are you up to? ” called 
Grandmother. 

Timothy’s voice came up the stairway. “ Oh, 
I dropped some wood and the milk-pails, that’s 
all. I got up early to do my chores.” 

They heard the shed door slam as he ran out 
to the barn. When they came down-stairs, he 
explained. 

“ This is the day we’re going on a picnic with 
the burro and Abbott. We have to start at eight 
o’clock, and I thought I’d go over to Aunt 
Theresy’s early, and see if I couldn’t help.” 

21 


22 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ You’re not going at any such hour as this. 
Theresy won’t be up. So sit down and eat your 
breakfast, and then you’ll wait for the girls.” 

But Timothy could not wait in the house. 
Trudy and Francis, coming down the path from 
the little red house with Claire and Isabelle, met 
him on the way, and they cut across lots to the 
sap-house. 

“ Father is going too,” said Trudy. “ He had 
to go to the village, but he’s going to leave the 
horse at the store, and meet us on the back 
road.” 

At the sap-house they found Amos and Belle. 
“ Lucky it’s Saturday,” said Amos. “ Nobody 
wants fish for Sunday dinner, so the fish-man can 
take a holiday and visit with the city folks.” 

Carmencita was standing by Aunt Theresy’s 
front door, and Abbott and Stanley were lying 
on the grass. Timothy had expected to see a 
huge bundle, covered with a cloth, and bound 
with a network of ropes, on the burro’s back; 
when he spied a saddle instead, he was quite dis- 
gusted. 

“ Where’s the camp kit? ” he demanded. “ I 


FORESTERS 


23 


thought you said we were going to eat out in the 
woods, and cook our dinner the way you do out 
west.” 

“ The camp kit is waiting for us at whatever 
spot we decide to eat, and the dinner is in our 
pockets, oh impatient child,” laughed Abbott. 

“ Come on,” said Stanley, “ let’s be going.” 

“Where are we going, Stanley?” asked 
Trudy. 

4 4 Exploring — somewhere over toward the 
mountain — a place you’ve never seen, I think.” 

44 1 bet I’ll know where it is when we get there,” 
boasted Timothy. 44 You can’t lose me in Todd’s 
Ferry.” 

But when they had passed the Primeval Pines, 
gone down the back road that led to the stage- 
road, and then suddenly struck off to the east, 
following an untraveled, overgrown way that was 
hardly more than a grassy track and apparently 
led nowhere in particular, winding about among 
pine woods, Timothy was silent. He looked 
sharply about for a familiar landmark, but the 
few deserted houses that they passed were all 
strange. Abbott noted the pines with a keen 


24 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

eye. “ White pine,” he said. “ Good second 
growth on these pastures. I tell you, those trees 
had room to grow. See the quantity of cones! 
There’s going to be a big seed crop next year.” 

“ Next year? ” said Francis. “ Why not this 
year? ” 

“ Because white pine cones take two years to 
mature. Those little cones, about a couple of 
inches long, began to grow last June, and by 
next year will be from five to eleven inches long. 
Then they will open and shed their little winged 
seeds, and the wind will scatter them over the 
earth. See the trees on the hill there? The 
seeds from those cones may travel half a mile be- 
fore they fall.” 

Carmencita did not care a bit about pine trees 
or cones or seeds. She trotted ahead, and they 
had to run to catch up with her. The road 
crossed a brook just beyond the pines, and dipped 
into a valley. Thick growths of trees shut them 
in now, but beyond the trees they could hear the 
brook murmuring among the stones. A par- 
tridge flew whirring into the underbrush. Crows, 
roosting in the tall trees, called to each other. 


FORESTERS 25 

The children began to ask, “Aren’t we almost 
there? ” 

Suddenly the thick woods ended. The road 
lay now between lovely sloping fields of rich 
grass-land, dotted here and there with groups of 
great maples and tall, graceful elms. Away 
below them, the brook, spreading out in the level 
meadow, glittered in the hot sunshine. Willow 
trees fringed the banks at intervals, and as the 
brook ran away to join the river that lay to the 
east, little bushes marked its course. Just over 
the wall, to the west, spread a great granite ledge, 
full of grassy hollows and shaded in many places 
by thick clumps of evergreens, large and small. 
But straight before them, beyond the open space 
that seemed to stretch miles and miles, dipping 
and rising, was the mountain ! 

Not one of the children had ever seen it like 
this. Timothy could see it from his bedroom 
window, but it was far away, and only showed a 
couple of peaks above the tree-tops. In rainy 
weather, the clouds hid it completely. Trudy 
could see a bit more, while from the big house 
Francis and the Johnstons could see much of its 


26 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

slopes; but here, they could look up and up, from 
its base, rising from the valley that faced them; 
up its wooded sides, so huge, and yet so far away 
that the trees looked like little bushes; up to the 
bare ledges that formed its twin peaks. 

For a minute no one spoke. Abbott looked 
from one to another, and then he laughed. “ I 
know you like my camping-place/’ he said, 
“ Ever see this spot before, Timothy? ” 

“ No, I never did.” 

“ Oh,” breathed Trudy, still gazing at the 
mountain, “ is that the way it looks out West? ” 

“Somewhat — but there’s considerably more of 
it there. However, this is a fairly good moun- 
tain for New Hampshire. It is more imposing 
because it stands alone.” 

“ Well,” interrupted Timothy, “ when are we 
going to tie the burro and camp? And when are 
we going to eat? And what are we going to eat? 
I’m hungry, but I don’t see any dinner.” 

Father laughed, but Timothy was already at 
the burro’s head. 

“ We’re going over on the ledge,” said Abbott. 
“ I reckon the owner won’t object to our camp- 


FORESTERS 27 

mg on his property if we clear up when we clear 
out.” 

“ Whose is it, anyway? ” said Timothy. 
“ Where are we? ” 

“ I don’t exactly know — some of the Todd’s 
Ferry people, I suppose. They own land for 
miles around the village.” 

They followed the wall until they found a low 
place, and scrambled over. Carmencita was the 
first one across. Her four little feet clattered 
on the stones, and she was soon contentedly rest- 
ing under a spruce tree. 

Abbott set the children to work gathering dry 
branches. 

“ The girls can get the wood, while the boys 
dig a hole — no, we shan’t need to dig, for here is 
a rocky hollow that is better still. Pile your 
small twigs in here, girls.” 

He scratched a match on the rock and fed the 
flames, using larger and larger sticks until he had 
a roaring fire in the natural fireplace. 

“ Oh,” said Timothy, disappointed, “ I thought 
you were going to make a fire without matches.” 

“ Some other time. To-day we are going to 


28 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

cook without dishes. Here, Francis, you take 
this pail and get some water from the brook.’’ 

“ Where did you get the pail? ” said Belle. 

“ Found it growing on a tree,” replied Amos. 
“ This is a wonderful place — everything here you 
need.” 

“ I saw him take it out from behind a rock,” 
Claire cried. “ He has been here before.” 

“ We’re going to have bacon and fried eggs, 
and pancakes on a stick,” announced Abbott. 
“ And each one is going to cook his own pan- 
cakes.” 

Father was cutting long sticks, and peeling the 
bark from the ends. Abbott had found several 
flat rocks about eight inches across and was 
tumbling them into the bed of glowing coals. 
Stanley had taken some eggs from his coat 
pocket, while Amos produced a package of 
bacon. Abbott hunted until he found a long flat 
piece of bark. He washed it clean, then poured 
some of the pancake flour into it; working as if 
the bark were a platter, he moistened the flour 
with water and stirred the mixture carefully with 
his knife. He worked it over and over until it 


FORESTERS 


29 


began to look like Grandmother’s dough, then he 
patted and flattened it into a long strip. 

“ Bring a stick, somebody,” he said. 

Six sticks appeared before him like magic. 

“ Hold on — hold on!” he cried. “I’m not 
such a rapid cook. One at a time, please.” 

He wound the strip of dough around the end 
of Claire’s stick. “ Now sit down in front of the 
fire and take it easy. Hold your pancake in the 
heat, turn it until it is done, then pick it off and 
eat it. Next!” 

Soon six sticks were twisting and turning over 
the fire, as the dough browned. Some of it 
burned, but that did not matter. How good it 
smelled, and when it was done, how good it 
tasted as it was pulled off bit by bit, and eaten, 
very carefully at first, for it was scorching hot. 

Meanwhile Abbott and Stanley lifted the hot 
stones from the coals with strong forked sticks. 
On each stone they made a ring of bacon, and 
in the middle of the bacon-ring broke an egg; 
the bacon held the eggs as safely as any pan, the 
hot stones were the stove, and soon there were 
fried eggs and bacon for everyone. 


.30 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 


“ Oh dear me! ” cried Trudy. “ Did you ever 
smell anything so perfectly hungryish in all your 
life? We can cook without dishes, and isn’t it 
fun, but however are we going to eat without 
spoons? ” 

Father produced some spoons which Mother 
had tucked into his pocket and there was no fur- 
ther trouble. 

After dinner there were no dishes to wash; 
only the stones to cool and roll out of sight, the 
smouldering fire to smother safely in earth, and 
the fingers to wash in the brook. Then they all 
lay down in the shade of the evergreens and 
looked at the wonderful view which spread out 
before them. 

“ A beautiful sight,” said Father, gazing at 
the great mountain. 

“ Some splendid trees there,” Amos answered. 

“ That is a forest,” said Abbott, “ and there is 
nothing more wonderful in the world. Except 
for old Mother Earth herself, there is nothing 
more necessary to us all than the forest. A tree 
is a wonderful thing by itself, but a forest is more 
than a collection of trees. Look at that now, on 


FORESTERS 31 

the side of the mountain. Many, many, many 
trees, all growing together. Some are older than 
the others, just like people, and the big trees take 
care of the little ones, and the little ones help the 
big ones. A forest, as it grows, makes its own 
soil, for the leaves fall and decay, the trees col- 
lect moisture, and roots run through and stir up 
the earth; animals live in the forest that live no- 
where else; plants grow there that are different 
from plants which grow in open spaces; the 
forest protects and shelters. It keeps the brooks 
from drying up, and the land from hardening 
and being washed away by floods. It assures 
good farming lands in this way. The forest 
wants to be a friend to man, and man ought to 
protect and care for the forest in return.” 

“ I should think a great thing like a forest 
could take care of itself,” said Timothy, chewing 
a blade of grass. 

“ The forest has enemies,” replied Abbott, 
“ and part of my job out West was to protect the 
forests from them. Some are little, and some 
are large; some are human, I’m sorry to say, and 
all of them can do a great deal of damage that 


32 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


takes nature years and years to remedy and not 
much of which she can prevent. Take fire, for 
instance. Imagine a great fire leaping from tree 
to tree over there — a crown fire, they call it when 
it runs along the tree-tops. I’ve seen crown 
fires in the West that ran faster than the swiftest 
man, dropping sparks and flaming branches that 
started ground fires in every direction. All the 
animals and birds are doomed in a fire like that. 
Forestry teaches you to prevent things of that 
sort. Then there are pests that eat the trees; 
forestry teaches you to destroy these, and the 
quickest way to do it. Forestry shows men how 
to use and not abuse a forest — to renew the trees, 
to cut out the old ones, and to keep the forest 
always, for coming generations, strong and use- 
ful.” 

“ Say,” said Timothy thoughtfully, “ I guess, 
instead of being a farmer, I’ll be a forester. 
Amos has told us lots like this, but not the way 
you have. Where can I learn all these things? 
You have to go to a kind of school, don’t you? 
Shall I have to go out West to learn? ” 

Abbott laughed. “Why don’t you combine 


FORESTERS 


33 


forestry and farming, Timothy? They go hand 
in hand. There is plenty to do right here in 
Todd’s Ferry.” 

“ Are girls ever foresters? ” Trudy wanted to 
know. 

And then Stanley told them of the young 
woman who kept a fire lookout, far away in the 
western forests; of the time when he had taken 
moving pictures of her, climbing up the many 
stairs that went up the steep rocky face of her 
mountain to her tower; of other pictures showing 
her in her cabin where she slept; on the road to 
the village, twenty miles away, going for her sup- 
plies ; of the bear she shot, and the pets that came 
each day for food. 

“ Who owns all this land here? ” said Timothy. 
“There don’t seem to be any houses in sight. It’s 
a pretty lonely spot.” 

“ Oh, different people in Todd’s Ferry,” re- 
plied Abbott, “ and you’re not so far away as 
you would think. The station is right over there, 
beyond that hill; the new State Road is laid out 
just the other side of the valley, at the foot of the 
mountain, and it’s not so far in a bee line to Mr. 


34 


TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY 


Johnston’s house. Henry White’s father owns 
that piece to the east, and a Mr. Little this on the 
other side, I believe. Mr. Turner has a good bit 
over by the State Road, hasn’t he, Amos? ” 

“ Yes, and Jonas owns that wood-lot we just 
came through.” 

“ Gracious! ” exclaimed Belle, “ but you know 
all about the place, Abbott.” 

“ That’s what I was sent up here for — to get 
the lay of the land.” 

“ Yes, but I’d like to know what for,” persisted 
Timothy. 

Abbott pulled Timothy’s ear, but before he 
could say a word, there sounded behind them such 
a horrible roar and groan and bellow that every- 
one except Abbott and Stanley jumped to their 
feet in terror. 

“ Don’t be alarmed,” drawled Abbott, “ it’s 
only my little Carmencita, singing!” 

“ Goodness me! ” said Amos, drawing a breath 
of relief, “ I hope she doesn’t give us the second 
verse. I don’t care for her voice.” 


CHAPTER III 


ACRES AND PLANS 

The children had imagined that Abbott and 
Stanley would spend all their time playing with 
them, teaching them to ride Carmencita, and 
planning one picnic after another; so, when the 
two men took the burro, loaded her with survey- 
ing instruments, tent and camping kit, and went 
away without even mentioning where they were 
going, without even letting Aunt Theresy know 
when to expect them back, there was a great com- 
motion among the “ We Four — Lots More.” 
No one could find out a single thing, although 
there was a suspicion that some of the grown 
people knew more than they would tell. The 
children would not even have known about the 
surveying kit if Amos had not met the outfit on 
the road to Prattville as he was peddling his fish. 

“ Looked to me as if they were headed over 
the mountain way,” he said. “ But they just 

hailed me and kept on going.” 

35 


36 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Oh, never mind/’ Francis consoled the 
others. “ Come on up to the big house and we’ll 
explore the quarry. Claire and Isabelle haven’t 
half seen the top of the hill.” 

Belle was spending the day with the girls, so 
they all tramped over the fields from Grand- 
father’s to Mr. Johnston’s house. He and Miss 
Margaret were on the wide piazza. He called 
them up to visit a while. 

“ I declare,” he said, “ it’s funny how I always 
get my wish. I was just thinking how nice it 
would be if Timothy should happen over to-day. 
I wanted to ask him how old he is. Let’s see, 
Timothy, you have a birthday soon, don’t you? ” 

“ The twenty-fifth of September,” was the 
prompt response. “ I’ll be thirteen on that day, 
and on the twenty-sixth of September I’ll be 
going on fourteen! ” 

“ My, how very rapidly you grow,” laughed 
Miss Margaret, while Mr. Johnston nodded 
thoughtfully. 

“ That’s all right,” he said. And then he got 
out of the rocking-chair, and reached for his hat 
which hung on a nail by the door. 


FORESTERS 37 

“ Suppose we all go for a walk.” 

“ We were going up to show Claire and Isa- 
belle the hill back of the quarry — you come too,” 
begged Trudy, skipping by his side and smiling 
up at him. 

“ I think we’ll go the other way. I have 
something to show you down the road.” 

They went through Miss Margaret’s lovely 
garden where the fountain was splashing in the 
little grass-edged pool, and where the sun-dial 
stood among the rose-bushes, out over the grass 
to the drive that led down the hill to the main 
road. Mr. Johnston pointed to the left. “ I 
suppose you know that’s the hill where little 
Judith lived — the little girl who was almost 
caught by the tornado. These are some of the 
apple trees, away down here by the wall. And 
the pines over there were part of her father’s 
wood-lot. They were tiny seedlings then.” 

Just where the road from the little red house 
met the other, he paused. 

“ Timothy,” he said, smiling, “ would you ob- 
ject to having your birthday present a little 
ahead of time?” 


38 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“I should say not!” cried Timothy. I’ll 
take it now.” 

“ Timothy! ” exclaimed Trudy. “ Aren’t you 
ashamed of yourself? ” 

But Mr. Johnston was chuckling. “ Well, 
there it is,” said he, waving his hand toward the 
hill. 

Timothy looked about in amazement. So did 
the others. They looked up in the trees; they 
looked up in the sky; they looked at each other; 
and then they looked at Mr. Johnston. 

My, how he was enjoying their astonishment! 

“It is right there in plain sight. I’m going 
to give you an acre of land on Judith’s hill.” 

“ For all my own? To do just what I want 
to with? Mine, to keep? ” 

“ People don’t usually give birthday presents 
and then take them back again, do they? ” 

“ Oh, gee, but that’s great! I certainly do 
thank you for my present. Say, won’t Grand- 
father be surprised? Say — oh, I wish Abbott 
was home. I want to consult him about my 
land.” He looked up at the trees, and at the 
field beyond. “ Which acre is it?” 


FORESTERS 


39 


“ It begins directly opposite the road from 
Trudy’s house. We’ll have Abbott survey it 
soon and draw a plan, and then I’ll have the 
deeds made and recorded, and it will be your very 
own.” 

Timothy strutted down the road, while the rest 
chattered all at once. But Mr. Johnston was. 
speaking again. ‘'And just so you won’t be 
lonesome when you are up here, working on your 
land, I’m going to give Trudy an acre — wait a 
minute — and one to Belle and to Francis.” 

“ Oh, my darling Santa Claus man! ” 

“ Why, Mr. Johnston, I’m afraid Pa won’t let 
me accept it.” 

“ But, Mr. Johnston, maybe I shan’t be here to 
take care of it. You know Father and Mother 
are on the way home, and when they come I’ll 
have to live with them. But it’s wonderful of 
you just the same.” 

“ Stop — stop — it’s all arranged. Your fa- 
ther’s plans are very uncertain, Francis, and 
if ” Pie stopped suddenly. “As I was say- 

ing, I’ve seen how interested you all are in the 
woods and the fields and out-of-doors generally, 


40 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


and you know that is my work in Washington. 
I need helpers, all I can get, young and old, so 
I’m giving you this land to see what you can do. 
I’m giving it to you to use, you understand. You 
made good on earning your trips to Washington 
with canning and preserving. Now here is an- 
other proposition — what are you going to do with 
this? ” 

“ Where are Belle’s and Trudy’s? ” Claire was 
asking, while Isabelle said, “ Which is yours, 
Francis? ” 

“ I’ve planned to give Trudy the next piece to- 
ward the main road, with Belle’s just beyond,” 
Mr. Johnston replied. “And the one for Francis 
lies just above Timothy’s. His is nearest our 

house. As soon as Abbott gets back from ” 

He caught himself. “As soon as Abbott comes 
home, I can show you exactly where they all be- 
gin and end.” 

The grown folks were not as surprised at the 
news as the children had expected, and at the next 
club meeting Belle said, “ I think they knew 
about it all the time. Anyway, Pa said I could 
keep my acre and I never thought he would. 


FORESTERS 


41 


Pa’s awful independent, but then, he thinks a lot 
of Mr. Johnston/’ 

In a day or two the men returned from their 
mysterious trip, and Carmencita was back in 
Aunt Theresy’s barn. Abbott surveyed the land 
for Mr. Johnston. The children went with him, 
of course. There were many discussions about 
the best use to make of the various pieces of land. 
Abbott made no suggestions, but was ready to 
furnish information on any subject. He asked 
just one question: “Are you going to begin now, 
or wait until you are grown up? ” 

“ Now isn’t that silly? ” said Timothy scorn- 
fully. “ Don’t you think we know any better 
than that? And we’ve got you right here now, 
too, and there’s no telling how soon you’ll have to 
fly away out West again. Of course we’re going 
to start right in and do something. I’ve been 
over my land several times, and I’ve decided to 
raise timber, and to get some sheep — they can 
graze on the hillside, and there’s lots of rocks on 
one place that I can use to make a wall to keep 
them where they belong — and maybe I’ll dig on 
some of it and see if I can find some Indian relics. 


42 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


And if Grandfather will let me have the plough, 
I’ll sow some of it to some kind of grain — what 
kind do you think would be best? ” 

“Whoa!” said Abbott. “All that on one 
acre? You’ve laid out a plan that will take some 
time.” 

“ I know what I’m going to do,” said Belle. 
“ My land is down in the corner where the two 
roads meet, and it’s most all second growth of 
timber, and there’s lots of berry bushes on it. 
I’m going to get Pa to clear some of it, and plant 
raspberries and blackberries, and set out some 
dwarf fruit trees — they grow fast — and then I 
can make lots of jellies, right off my own land, 
and sell them.” 

“ I wish I was sure of staying here,” sighed 
Francis. “ Just as things are getting exciting 
and I can go round like the rest of you, I don’t 
want to have to go away. But I’m going to get 
Father and Mother to come up here every sum- 
mer anyway. Oh, say, Abbott, couldn’t I set 
out some little trees, like Mr. Johnston’s, and 
perhaps more kinds, and have a nursery? And 
sell them to people, and make money? ” 


FORESTERS 


“ I shouldn’t wonder.” 

Abbott had marked Belle’s acre, and Tim- 
othy’s, and now they were tramping over the 
piece that belonged to Trudy. Here, the trees 
were more maples, oaks and beeches ; there were 
broad sunny open spaces, with young growth and 
ferns. Across one side of the land, winding in 
and out, darting under the trees, running over 
masses of rocks, and in one spot leaping over a 
cliff so that it made a little waterfall, was a swift- 
rushing, busy little brook. Over their heads birds 
fluttered in the trees, rather silent now, for they 
were watching the little ones that had recently 
learned to fly. Once in a while a blue jay 
screamed. Claire discovered a black and white 
creeper, winding his way up a tree-trunk. 

“ Trudy hasn’t told us what she is going to do 
with her acre,” Abbott said. 

“ Oh, I’ve been talking with Mother and Miss 
Margaret, and I’m going to have a bird refuge. 
I’m going to put up notices that no shooting will 
be allowed, and I shall have places to feed the 
birds in winter, and I’m going to keep that 
swampy tangle down in the corner just as it is. 


44 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

Mother and I are coming up here as often as we 
can, and watch the birds, and keep a record of 
them, and see how many we can attract. I think 
it will be a lovely place.” 

“And so do I,” said Stanley Blake emphatic- 
ally, when they told him of it later. “ Please, 
Trudy, will you let me take moving pictures of 
birds in your sanctuary? ” 

On the way home they found a beautiful white 
birch tree with deep gashes and wide yellow scars 
in its lovely bark. 

“There!” exclaimed Mr. Johnston, “some- 
body has been stripping my trees. If I only 
knew who it was, I’d read him a lecture. He has 
killed my tree, for that cutting has gone too deep, 
and he has spoiled all its beauty, as it is. I must 
put up some signs.” 

“ We’ll do it for you,” promised the children. 

Timothy and Francis printed several signs, in 
large black letters, on wood, “ Do Not Strip 
Bark from Trees,” and the club members 
tacked them up in prominent places. Once, 
while they were all standing on a wall, posting a 
sign a little way below the village, they heard a 


FORESTERS 


45 


trampling and crashing in the young growth be- 
yond. The noise came nearer, and three or four 
white and red spotted faces looked inquiringly at 
the queer company on the wall. 

“ Oh,” squealed Isabelle, “ look at the awful 
things! What shall we do? ” 

“ Don’t be a goose,” said Timothy; “they’re 
only yearling cattle. I know them. They be- 
long to Mr. White. His pasture is over that 
way, and they have broken through somewhere. 
We must drive them back. Come on, they won’t 
hurt you.” 

Claire and Isabelle were afraid at first, but as 
soon as they saw the young cattle scampering 
obediently in front of the boys, they followed. 
The yearlings were not easy to drive, as they went 
nearer the pasture. They wanted to stay outside 
and explore the new country, but at last they 
were safely secured, and the gap in the wall found 
and blocked so that they could not get out again 
that night. The children stopped at Mr. White’s 
on the way home to tell him so he could mend his 
wall. He was not at home, but Henry was milk- 
ing and Dave Little was waiting for him. 


46 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


“ Say,” said Henry, “ do you suppose Mr. 
Kimball would let us boys go on a hike with him 
some day? I heard Amos talking about him, and 
I’d admire to go with him.” 

“ Sure he would, — we’ll tell him, and some day, 
when we’re going off on a good time, we’ll let you 
know and you can both go.” 

“ I’ve met him,” Dave told them. “ He was 
over to see Father the other night. And Mr. 
Perkins was there, too.” 

“Pa was?” cried Belle. “What night was 
that? What did they want? ” 

“ I don’t know. My father sent me out of the 
room. Fie sent me on an errand to the store, and 
when I came back they were gone.” 

“That’s funny,” said Timothy. “I didn’t 
know Abbott knew your father.” 

But when they asked Abbott about it, he only 
laughed at them and said, “ Oh, you know if you 
work for Uncle Sam, you have lots of different 
things to do. But I’d like to have the boys go with 
us — the more, the merrier. By the way, I have 
to go up the mountain in a few days. How 
would it do to get up a party, make an all-day 


FORESTERS 47 

trip of it, and have a regular mountain-climb? 
You ask the boys if they want to go. Stanley 
will go, for he wants to take some moving pic- 
tures up there.” Abbott looked at the sky. “ I 
reckon it will be a fair day to-morrow. Better 
go then. Ask your folks if they can get up a 
lunch on short notice. We shan’t want to do 
any outdoor cooking on that trip. It’s rather a 
hard climb, even if it is only a tame, eastern 
mountain, and we shall want a good, hearty meal. 
Amos has a day off to-morrow, too. We’ll bor- 
row a couple of horses and a big wagon and drive 
up as far as there is a good road.” 

“ You can get a wagon from Mr. Perkins, I 
guess,” volunteered Timothy, “ and there is an 
old shed at the end of the road where you can 
leave the horses.” 

“ I know it.” 

“ Oh, you’ve been up there, have you? Say, 
was that where you went with Stanley, that time 
you took Carmencita and your surveying kit? ” 

But Abbott only laughed and would not an- 


swer. 


CHAPTER IV 


UP THE MOUNTAIN 

Belle told her father that Abbott wanted to 
climb the mountain next day, and they were all 
going with him. “ He’s going to borrow some- 
thing to go in,” she said, “ but I don’t know 
where he will get anything big enough to take us 
all. Stanley has to have his moving-picture cam- 
era, and there will be all the lunch, and sweaters 
and things. We shall need them on the moun- 
tain-top. If there is any wind, it will be cold on 
the top.” 

After Belle had gone to bed Mr. Perkins 
sauntered over to the store and borrowed Bill, the 
big boy that helped Mr. Me Adam, for the next 
day. Then he and Bill had a talk, and when no 
one was awake in Mr. Perkins’s house, he and 
Bill went into the barn and began taking out the 
autos and wagons there. 

Next morning, the children, waiting at Grand- 
48 



They Shouted to All Who Passed Them 





t 






l 


A‘ 




V«j ' • i 

f 





\ 















FORESTERS 


49 


mother’s, heard a clattering of hoofs coming up 
the hill, and Bill’s voice, “ Get-ap — get-ap, 
there! ” just like Mr. Perkins. And then — four 
horses clambered into view, dragging something 
big enough to hold the mountain party and all 
their belongings — the old-fashioned stage-coach, 
with Bill high on the driver’s seat, but higher still, 
on the seat that crossed the roof, was Belle, wav- 
ing her hand and shouting gleefully, “ Look what 
Pa found! ” 

Mr. Johnston and Miss Margaret had come 
down to see them off, and Mother and Father 
were there, too. The girls, with Timothy and 
Francis, scrambled up over the big wheel to sit 
beside Belle. Six on the seat was rather crowded, 
so the boys sat on the top with the lunch, and 
clung to the rail. It seemed very high, away up 
there. Bill cracked his long whip, and away they 
went to Aunt Theresy’s house. Abbott and 
Stanley were waiting, and they cheered when the 
stage came into view. 

“ Well, well,” said Aunt Theresy, “ isn’t that 
clever of your father, Belle? ITow natural that 
old stage looks. I’ve ridden in it many a time. 


50 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY, 

and I always sat on top if I could. But you 
children up there will have to look out for low 
bridges.” 

Before they could ask what she meant, the 
horses started, and a branch of a maple tree in 
the pasture swept sharply into their faces. “ Low 
bridge!” shouted Timothy, ducking another 
branch, and they all lay over on their sides until 
the tree was safely passed. After that they 
watched for overhanging branches, for some- 
times they hid sharp jagged dead limbs that 
would make ugly scratches. They were so busy 
looking for low bridges that only Trudy spied the 
tall, thin man waiting at the crossroads. 

“ Bill!” she called. “ Oh, Bill— stop ! There’s 
Amos! Perhaps he will go with us. Oh, ask 
him. I have plenty of lunch.” 

But Amos had stepped out into the road and 
was leveling imaginary pistols at the oncoming 
stage. 

“ Hands up! ” he cried, very loud and fierce; 
then laughed as he swung himself into the stage. 
“ Did you think I was going to miss a picnic as 
good as this?” he called to the children above 


FORESTERS 


51 


him. “ I engaged my passage as soon as I saw 
Perkins and Bill hauling out the stage last 
night.” 

They passed many automobiles, and how the 
folks stared. It was great fun to call to them, 
although they could not understand anything that 
was said in return. But the automobilists would 
laugh and wave, and turn around to watch the 
lively turnout. 

“ Let's make up a yell,” said Francis, “ and if 
we all shout it at once, everybody can understand 
us.” 

“What rhymes with Todd’s Ferry?” said 
Belle. 

“ Berry — merry — cherry ” 

“ I know,” squealed Claire, 

“This stage from Todd’s Ferry 
Has passengers merry ! 

Hur — rah, Hur— RAH, Hur — RAH!” 

They learned it at once and shouted it to all 
who passed them; they called it in the streets of 
Prattville, and at all the lonely little farmhouses 
that they saw on the mountain road. Children 


52 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


waved to them, dogs barked and ran out as they 
dashed by; but at last there were no more houses, 
the road grew narrower and steeper, and Bill let 
the horses slow down into a steady walk. The 
stage brushed against the trees now, first on one 
side, then on the other, and the children had to lie 
down on the roof and hide their faces. 

Bill stopped the horses to rest them. Amos 
got out. “ Better walk a bit now,” he advised. 
“ Stretch your legs and save the horses. Trudy, 
do you remember this place? ” 

They were passing the site of the saw-mill 
where Amos had brought the children on their 
tree day, a year ago. The saw-mill had come 
down to Todd’s Ferry later, and almost taken 
Aunt Theresv’s great pines, but to-day the camp 
was gone and the men were far away. Under- 
brush was springing up among the ragged tree- 
stumps, blueberry bushes were trying to hide the 
chips and bark that were cluttered about, and 
only the great ugly pile of sawdust remained to 
show where the mill had stood. 

“ Oh,” shuddered Trudy, “ let’s hurry. I 
never want to see this place again.” 


FORESTERS 


53 


Several automobiles crept past them, chugging 
up the steep grade. 

“ Boarders,” explained Timothy; “ parties go- 
ing to climb the mountain. That first machine 
is from Todd House. I guess the others are from 
Prattville. Lots of people climb the mountain 
every day in summer. That man on top has 
plenty of company.” 

“ Is there a man on top of the mountain? ” 

“ The fire warden,” said Abbott. “ We’ll pay 
him a visit, and ask him to show us about his 
work.” 

Bill had stopped the horses in an open space 
where the automobiles were parked. Short green 
grass covered the field; there was an old barn 
with the boards falling apart, and near by, the 
cellar of what had once been a large building. 

“ The old hotel,” said Amos. “ It burned 
down one night, and no one has had courage to 
build another. Too hard a place to get to — no- 
body came except the folks that climbed the 
mountain, and they didn’t stay. We can leave 
our traps right here, and eat when we come 
back.” 


54 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


“ I’m hungry now/’ said Isabelle; “ why don’t 
we eat first? ” 

“ You couldn’t climb a mountain right after 
eating, don’t you know that? ” said Timothy. 
“ Didn’t you learn that out West? But you can 
have one sandwich. I guess that won’t do any 
harm. I’m going to have a couple myself.” And 
he tore off the paper from the box of lunch that 
Grandmother had packed for him. 

“ Put on your sneakers, everybody,” com- 
manded Abbott. “ We’ll go up over the ledges.” 

Amos produced a pair of old rubbers from his 
coat pocket. “No sneakers for me,” he said. 
“ Good old boots and rubbers — then I’m ready 
for anything.” 

Bill decided to stay with the horses, so they 
left him and tramped across the grassy field that 
led to the thick growth of pines encircling the 
mountain. Timothy started off on the run. 

“ Now quit that, Timothy,” said Abbott 
sternly; “ this is a real mountain climb, and I’ll 
tell you what to do, or rather, what not to do. 
The first thing is not to use up your wind in the 
beginning. Take long slow steps, and take it 


FORESTERS 


55 


easy. Don’t be afraid to turn around now and 
then, and enjoy the view. We have all day, and 
we’re not going to hurry, and we are going to see 
all there is to be seen.” 

Timothy and Amos had climbed the mountain 
before, but never before had they really seen the 
mountain. The trail, marked with pieces of 
white cloth, tied on the bushes, led them through 
a little hidden opening in the pines — and Abbott 
saw an owl sitting motionless on a dead branch. 
They climbed in the bed of the brook, dry now, 
but in early spring impassable — rushing full of 
cold foaming mountain water — from the melting 
snow. Abbott showed them the gullies that un- 
dermined the banks on either side of the boulders 
and made that a treacherous place to walk. He 
removed dangerous loose stones, sometimes 
throwing them to one side, more often packing 
them between others to make easy steps and im- 
prove the trail. When they reached the timber 
line, instead of merely looking through the thin- 
ning trees to find the white rag that marked the 
end of the trail, they learned from Abbott to 
notice the trees growing shorter and more 


56 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


scraggly, with smaller branches that would let the 
powerful winds of the high places rush by without 
tearing the trees to pieces. Abbott showed them 
too, how the winter snow lay so heavily as to stunt 
the growth of the trees, until finally they were 
scarcely more than little bushes. And then came 
the bare slippery ledges. 

Here the trail was marked by broad, white 
arrows, painted on the rocks. Now, for the first 
time they saw more than the arrows — the marks 
and scratches made on the ledges by the great 
ice-sheet that had slowly pushed its way over the 
mountain-top, thousands of years before. Here 
they were glad of their sneakers, for they could 
walk over the slippery, steep ledges without fear. 
They saw other parties that had forgotten to 
bring rubber-soled shoes, and they were scram- 
bling and sliding and screaming, while some 
crawled up on hands and knees. 

It was not far now to the top, and Timothy 
raced ahead. They found him sitting by the fire 
warden who laughed as the others appeared. 

“ Guess you must be the rest of the Todd’s 
Ferry party,” he said. “ This young man has 


FORESTERS 


57 


told me all the news, and now he wants me to 
point out all your houses, and tell him all I know 
about forest fires. Which of you is Mr. Kimball? 
I’ll just leave the fire stories to him, for the little 
bonfires we have here can’t compare with the 
fires he must have seen in the West.” 

“ Some other time,” promised Abbott. “ Now 
will you show the children your map and let them 
see what you would do if there was a fire? ” 

The fire warden explained the map that was 
mounted under glass, and divided so that all the 
country was marked out into districts. “You 
see, we have a headquarters in each district,” he 
said, “ and I can get them all by telephone. 
There are fire-fighting apparatus stored where 
each man knows about it, and if I spot a fire with 
my glasses, I locate it on the map, telephone to 
that warden, and he gets hold of his men, starts 
out as fast as he can, and if he needs help, he 
notifies me, and I send others.” 

“ Isn’t it lonesome up here? ” Trudy inquired. 
The warden laughed. “ It might be on a rainy 
day, but then I’m not here on rainy days, so I 
don’t mind it. All through the summer there are 


58 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

lots of people here, just as you see them to-day.” 
And he turned to explain it all over again to an- 
other group that had just reached the summit. 

Stanley had set up his moving-picture camera, 
and was working while quite a good many people 
gathered to watch him. The children were so 
proud to be with him, that they crowded close by, 
and so never noticed when Abbott went back to 
talk long and seriously with the fire warden. 
Neither did they see the warden give Abbott a 
map, covered with figures, or hear him say, 
“ That would be one of the best things that could 
happen ! ” 

“ Time to go,” called the men at last, and with 
one final look at the lovely rolling country spread 
out below them, one more view of the sparkling 
little blue lakes, the}^ turned for their downward 
trip. Amos led this time. “ I’ll show you a short 
cut,” he said, and soon they were back on the open 
meadow and running down the slope to where 
Bill lay asleep in the stage. 

How they panted — and how their knees shook 
— for the last part of the trail had been steep and 
rough, and the sloping meadow so slippery with 


FORESTERS 


59 


dry August grass that they could not stop, but 
had to keep on running. 

“ Everyone lie down for fifteen minutes, ,, Ab- 
bott said decidedly. “ No one must eat until he 
is rested.” 

At the end of the fifteen minutes, what a dif- 
ference ! Rested and hungry, how good the lunch 
tasted. The horses had had their dinner, and 
when they were harnessed into the stage, they 
trotted off as fresh as young colts. Bill had to 
hold them in with all his strength, and to stand 
on the brakes all the way down the mountain 
road. 

“ Go home round the station, Bill, will you? ” 
begged Timothy. “ It’s longer.” 

There was plenty of time, so they took the 
longer way. And when they stopped at the store 
to leave Amos, and chatted with Mr. McAdam, 
he said, “ Well, there is somebody at the big house 
that will enjoy seeing you folks. Stage has just 
gone up to Mr. Johnston’s with a passenger. 
Didn’t you expect him? ” 

“ Expect him? What do you mean? Who’s 
come? ” 


60 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Why, Donald, Mr. Johnston’s nephew that 
was here a couple of years ago and nearly blew 
himself up on Fourth of July. He has just come 
up from Washington.” 

Donald, at the big house, was rather cross and 
discontented when the children arrived. 

“ I didn’t want to come,” he grumbled to 
Francis, “ but Mother was invited away, and sent 
me up here. It’s too slow here — nothing to do 
but stay out-of-doors, nothing ever happens, 
same old people here ” 

“ Oh, Donald,” cried Trudy, running around 
the corner of the house with Claire and Isabelle, 
“ I’m so glad to see you! And I want you to 
meet my friends. Claire, this is Donald John- 
ston, from Washington. Isabelle, this is Mr. 
Johnston’s nephew, Donald. Claire and Isabelle 
act in moving pictures, but they are up here on a 
vacation.” 

Donald’s scowl vanished. He brushed his 
hand over his black hair that would curl when he 
didn’t want it to, and when Isabelle asked him if 
he was going to stay long, he replied, “ All the 
rest of the summer, I think.” 


CHAPTER V 

THE GROWN-UPS' MYSTERY 

“ I’m going down to the store,” said Father, 
one evening, a few days later. 

About the same time, Mr. Perkins sauntered 
out of his house, saying, “ Going over to the store 
a while. Mother.” 

Mr. Turner called to his housekeeper, “ Any 
errands down-town? ” and went out to harness. 

Mr. Johnston appeared at the door of the farm- 
house, saying, “ All ready, Jonas? ” and Grand- 
father took his hat, and said, “ Don’t sit up for 
me. I’m going down to see Me Adam.” 

“ I’ll go too,” said Timothy, throwing his tools 
on the floor. He had been trying to carve a sign, 
“ To the Quarry.” 

“ No, you won’t,” was the prompt reply. 
“ You will stay right here, and you’ll pick that 

clutter off the floor, too.” 

61 


62 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

Timothy banged about the kitchen and mut- 
tered under his breath till Grandmother sent him 
to bed, but next day, when a crowd of the school 
children were on their way up to see the land that 
Mr. Johnston had given the “We Four — No 
More,” he asked Bill what they all did down at 
the store. 

“ I don’t know,” Bill replied. “ They all came 
in, the folks from your end of the town, and my 
uncle, and the manager of Todd House, and 
Dave Little’s father, and oh, I don’t know how 
many others, till I thought there was going to be 
a town meeting, and then they all went out in the 
back room, and Mr. McAdam told me to tend 
store, and I couldn’t hear a word they said. They 
were still there when I locked up and went 
home.” 

“ Did Abbott come? ” 

“ Oh, yes, he came in first with Mr. Blake. 
They had a long roll of something, and they 
talked with Mr. McAdam before the rest 
came.” 

“ They’re up to something,” declared Belle, 
“ but never mind them now. Here’s where my 


FORESTERS 63 

land begins, right here at this stone. Come on, 
let’s climb over the wall and go up through the 
fields.” 

The other school children had heard about the 
good times that Trudy and her friends were hav- 
ing with Abbott, and had begged to go on some 
of the hikes; they had become interested, too, in 
the work with the trees, and when Mr. Johnston 
had suggested making signs warning people of 
fire dangers and asking for help in preventing 
injury from fires, they had quickly responded. 
To-day they were going to tramp over the chil- 
dren’s land by themselves, as Abbott and Stanley 
had gone on another mysterious trip. They 
planned to make a trail through Belle’s land to 
the old cellars that marked the place where little 
Judith had lived when the hurricane had de- 
stroyed her home, a hundred years before. The 
boys had axes to clear the trail, and the girls had 
pieces of red cloth to mark it. Belle’s land was 
rather open, and the making of the trail was 
easier for that reason; they soon reached the cel- 
lars and sat down to rest. 

Claire had brought a pair of field-glasses when 


64 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


she and Isabelle came back, and now she looked 
through them at the houses, far below. 

“ I can see your grandfather, Timothy,” she 
said. “ He’s out in the hay-field with Ben Dob- 
son. There’s somebody with them. It looks like 
— it is — it’s Stanley Blake, and they are all look- 
ing at a big piece of paper ! ” 

Then everyone had to have a peep through the 
glasses, but it was too far to see what was on the 
piece of paper, and of course they could not hear 
what the men were saying. If the children had 
been there, they might have seen Stanley pointing 
to certain marks on the paper and saying, “ Lit- 
tle owns that piece — he’s all right. That belongs 
to McAdam, and he’s willing — here is Turner’s 
land, and he’s a regular trump. He gave a hun- 
dred dollars in cash, besides — but right there, in 

the middle, that’s what sticks us ” 

And Grandfather answered, “ The only way I 
know to find out is to go to Concord and look it 
up.” 

But the children were high on the windy hill, 
and so the mystery was as deep as ever. ' Not one 
of the grown-ups would answer the simplest ques- 


FORESTERS 


65 


tion. They only laughed and winked, and said, 
“ Don't you wish you knew? ” and were as aggra- 
vating as possible. So there was nothing to do 
but wait. 

And while they waited, the children tramped 
the fields and woods, under Abbott’s direction, 
and placed signs where he advised, trying to 
lessen the danger of fire. “ For,” he said, “ now is 
the time to do it. The woods are as dry as tinder, 
and the village is full of boarders who wander 
about, smoking, and making fires to roast corn 
and fry bacon, and if they aren’t careful, Todd’s 
Ferry will have a fire.” 

“ If Todd’s Ferry ever had a forest fire, I 
think I’d die,” said Trudy. “ It almost makes 
me cry to think of trees being burned, and if 
anything should happen to Aunt Theresy’s 
pines ” 

“ No need of a fire if we take precautions,” 
said Abbott. “ But we must educate folks. 
Timothy, hand me that sign with the poetry on it. 
I’m going to put it right here, where every 
boarder who comes to bathe or picnic can’t help 
seeing it. Who wrote it, anyway? ” 


66 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


“ Isabelle — isn’t she smart? ” 

“ Oh, it was something like a jingle I heard 
once. I only changed it a little, and besides, 
Trudy’s mother helped me.” 

“ Pretty good sign,” approved Abbott, holding 
it out at arm’s length and reading it aloud. 

“ Twinkle , twinkle, little spark. 

Lurking in the forest dark — 

Up you go, on windy days, 

Starting many a deadly blaze! 

So, traveler, when a spark you see, 

Stamp it out, and save a tree!” 

“ Yes, that’s certainly good. Say, Isabelle, would 
you mind if I copied that? Perhaps I could 
use it somewhere else. Maybe, some day, when 
you are working on location in some of the big 
National Parks, you will look up and see your 
own jingle staring you in the face! ” 

“ I think we ought to save that for our own 
park,” objected Timothy. 

“ Oh, don’t be stingy.” 

“ The Todd’s Ferry Park isn’t known yet. 
It’s not even a dot on the map. Just a little land, 
and some big trees on it. And the trees aren’t 


FORESTERS 67 

a patch on the California ones either. Only a 
few people come here anyway. I don’t think it’s 
a very grand place. Only a measly little country 
village.” 

“ Look here, Donald Johnston, you stop that 
right off! Todd’s Ferry is — is — is ” Tim- 
othy was stuttering with rage. He had jumped 
to his feet and was striding toward Donald who 
was laughing at his indignation. 

“ You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Don- 
ald,” cried Francis. “ Todd’s Ferry is good 
enough to be your uncle’s summer home, and he is 
one of the biggest men in Washington; and it’s 
Timothy Todd’s home, and he’s just exactly right 
to stand up for it. I wish I could live here al- 
ways. I wish I needn’t ever go away. I think it 
is a beautiful place.” 

“ Come, come,” interrupted Abbott. “ Todd’s 
Ferry is going to be perfectly able to take care of 
itself, and as for people not coming here, why, 

before long ” He stopped abruptly, very 

red in the face. “ Nearly gave the show away, 
that time,” he said, under his breath. And aloud, 
he went on, “ It takes time for all good places to 


68 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

become known. Why, the Yellowstone Park was 
discovered six times before people would believe 
that there really was such a place. Sit down now, 
and get over being mad, and I’ll tell you about 
the man w T ho was first to see it.” 

Timothy was still glaring at Donald, but 
Trudy and Claire pulled him down between 
them. Abbott sat in the middle of the circle of 
children. 

“ John Colter — and no true American ought 
ever to forget that name — was a skilled hunter 
and trapper with the Lewis and Clarke Expedi- 
tion that explored the Columbia River region. 
On the way back, Colter asked permission to leave 
the expedition and hunt, trap and trade with 
friendly Indians near the Yellowstone and Mis- 
souri Rivers. This was in 1806, and he spent a 
year or more in the woods, with two companions, 
meeting, some time in 1807, a trader named Man- 
uel Lisa who was only too glad to get the services 
of such a skilful man as Colter. Lisa was going 
to the country that Colter had just been through, 
but he turned back at Lisa’s request, and later 
went from Indian tribe to tribe, trading. Once, 


FORESTERS 


69 


while he was with a party of Crow Indians, they 
were attacked by the Blackfeet, and Colter was 
obliged to fight on the side of the Crows. He dis- 
tinguished himself, w T as wounded, and decided to 
get back at once to Lisa’s camp. So he took a 
direct line, and traveling through new country, 
went hundreds of miles alone, and with a wound 
in his leg. It was on this trip that he crossed one 
corner of what is now the Yellowstone Park, and 
discovered the boiling springs, the great tar 
spring, and saw the Falls of the Yellowstone and 
the Grand Canon. Imagine him, resting on the 
rim of the Canon alone, and seeing for the first 
time that wonder and glory! Yet, when he told 
of it, no one would believe him. They said he 
was crazed with fever from his wound — that he 
had made it all up — that there could not possibly 
be such things in that region, probably not any- 
where in the world. No one who had hunted 
there had ever seen them, so, of course, they did 
not exist. As long as he lived, very few people 
could be found to believe that he was telling the 
truth. And after that, the Park was discovered 
by others who were not believed, so, you see, 


70 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

Timothy, it sometimes takes a long time to teach! 
folks anything new.” 

“ You haven’t told how Colter escaped from 
the Indians,” said Francis who had heard Ab- 
bott’s story before. 

“ That hasn’t anything to do with the Yellow- 
stone Park.” 

“Never mind,” Timothy said, “it’s Indians, 
and I want to hear it.” 

“ That came later. Lisa sent Colter back to 
the Blackfeet Indians, with a man named Potts. 
They were in hostile country, the Indians were 
on the warpath, so the white men trapped by 
night, remaining hidden by day. Early one 
morning, when they were in a canoe after the 
game of the night, they heard a great trampling 
on the high river-banks above them. 

“ ‘ Indians ! ’ said Colter. 

“ * Buffalo,’ said Potts. ‘ Are you afraid? ’ 

“ As they came to a place where the river-bank 
dipped, they saw the Indians — five hundred of 
them, and were at once surrounded and told to 
come ashore. Potts fired at them, and was in- 
stantly killed by the shower of arrows that re- 


FORESTERS 71 

turned his fire. Colter came ashore. The In- 
dians recognized him as the white man who had 
fought with their enemies, the Crows. They took 
his arms and ammunition. 

Are you a good runner? ’ said the Chief. 

“ Colter knew what that meant. He was to he 
given a chance — to run away from five hundred 
Indians. Now he was really a wonderful runner, 
but he knew this meant his life. ‘ I am a poor 
runner/ he said. They took away his clothes, 
gave him a start of several hundred yards, and 
the race for life was on! Colter dared not turn. 
He ran as he had never run before, outdistanced 
all but one, tripped and killed that one — and dove 
into the river, four or five miles from the place 
where he had been captured. He swam under 
water, and fortunately saw a mass of driftwood 
making a sort of raft at the end of an island. 
Diving under this, he found a place where he 
could keep his head out of water, and yet be hid- 
den. The Indians pursued him. They swam into 
the river. They hunted over the island. They 
even walked on the raft under which he shivered, 
but at last they went away. Not until night did 


72 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


Colter dare to leave his hiding-place, and then, 
without clothes, without food, without a weapon, 
he started for Lisa’s camp, six days’ journey 
away.” 

“ He never got there, did he? ” 

“ Of course he did,” said Timothy. 

“ Yes, he did, but no one understands how. 
He lived on a root that the Indians had told him 
about, and, although the sun blistered him, the 
thorns cut his flesh and the cold night winds froze 
him, he reached Lisa’s camp. Soon after that he 
came to the settlements, married, and, I hope, 
lived happy ever after. Anyway, that is all we 
know about him.” 

“ Gee,” sighed Timothy as Abbott finished, 
“ I’ll bet those Indians felt silly when they 
couldn’t find him.” 

Abbott nailed up the sign, and they started for 
home. This day’s work finished the territory near 
the lake — they had been at the bathing beach — 
and Abbott said that next day they would make 
a trail through the woods to the place where he 
had taken them with Carmencita — the lovely spot 
with the wonderful view of the mountain. “ That 


FORESTERS 


78 


ought to be better known,” he said, with a twinkle 
in his eye. 44 There are great possibilities in that 
place. Let’s introduce it to the boarders, and to 
the people of Todd’s Ferry. Just about a nice 
walk from the village, too. It ought to be popu- 
lar before we get through with it.” 

Timothy had learned to ride Carmencita, and 
enjoyed jogging over the roads and fields, but 
Donald scorned the burro and had teased Mr. 
Johnston for a saddle horse. He rode by himself, 
for he would, not be seen with Timothy and Car- 
mencita, and went for long rides frequently. 
Once, after he had been over toward the moun- 
tain, he said to Trudy, “ I saw that place Abbott 
is so crazy about, to-day. It’s quite a pretty 
spot, that is, for up here, and while I was riding 
by I saw Stanley and Abbott come out of the 
trail. They had surveyor’s instruments and they 
were measuring the land. Do you suppose they 
are going to buy it? I thought Abbott seemed 
pretty interested in it.” 

“ I’ve seen Turner over there,” said Amos, who 
was selling Mother a fish , 4 4 and Me Adam, too.” 

44 Amos,” said Trudy suddenly, 44 were you in 


74 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY: 


the store that night when all the men were there? 
Do you know what they were talking about? ” 

“ What night was that? ” said Amos. “ Got 
to be on my way. Expect a big trade to-day.” 

Father laughed, but Trudy said, “ Well, I’ve 
found out one thing! I’ve found out all the 
grown folks seem to be terribly interested in that 
piece of land! ” 


CHAPTER VI 


WANTED — A CLOCK-MAN 

“ Any old brooms? — Any old brooms? Shov- 
els or pitchforks — any old brooms? ” 

Far down the road sounded the sing-song call. 
Mr. Turner heard it and turned his head to listen. 
It came nearer — it grew louder and louder, until 
it was a shout just around the corner of the house. 

“ Shovels and pitchforks? Any old brooms? ” 

Mr. Turner straightened up from his work on 
the harness as Timothy appeared in the barn- 
yard; then Mr. Turner gave a loud call, “ Min- 
nie ! Minnie, come out here ! ” 

His housekeeper came out through the shed, 
wiping her hands. 

“ Mercy on us!” she exclaimed. “What on 
earth is it? ” 

In the barn-yard stood four small hairy legs 
surmounted by a crate-like arrangement of old 
brooms. From the front of the mass looked out 
75 


76 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY 

the disgusted face of Carmencita, and rising from 
its midst was Timothy’s tousled head. 

“ It’s that donkey-critter I was telling you 
about,” explained Mr. Turner, “ and Timothy, 
with a load of junk.” 

“ Not junk,” objected Timothy. “ I want all 
the old brooms you have, and I’ll take any old 
shovels or pitchforks, too. I don’t care how 
broken they are. We’re going to mend them, and 
they will do just as well, if they only get fixed 
good and strong.” 

“ I generally burn my old brooms in my spring 
bonfire, but I may have an old spade somewhere. 
What are you going to do with them, if I may 
ask?” 

“ If you’ll lift these up on this side, I guess I 
can slide out, and while Carmencita is resting, I’ll 
explain.” 

They all sat down on the grass, and Carmen- 
cita wandered about, cropping here and there. 

“ Well, you know Mr. Johnston gave us four 
acres of land up on the hill, and he wants us to 
learn to use and improve it, and Abbott has been 
giving us points. You know Abbott is a Forest 


FORESTERS 


77 


Ranger, and he has had lots of experience. Well, 
he says the greatest danger to the woods is fire, 
and there’s practically no fire protection right 
here in Todd’s Ferry, so I’m going to establish 
a fire station on my land, and I’m collecting these 
things for that.” 

“ Oh, I see. But what good are old brooms? ” 

“ Oh, of course they wouldn’t be much use 
with a big fire, but if you found a little one just 
starting, you could beat it out with a wet broom 
— and even if it was quite well under way and 
was burning along the ground, you might check 
it by scraping the leaves and things ahead of it 
away with a pitchfork. And of course you know 
they stop fires by digging ditches, so I thought 
I’d better have some of all kinds and be pre- 
pared. Say, Mr. Turner, did you know I’ve 
found a spring on my land? Well, I have, right 
about in the middle of the lot, and I’m going to 
build a shack there, and store my supplies in it, 
and keep food there, you know, canned things; 
and have some cooking kit, and a bunk to sleep in, 
and I’m going to face it toward the mountain, 
because you can see the mountain from that spot, 


78 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

and I’m going to arrange a set of signals with the 
fire warden up there — up on the mountain, I 

mean ” Timothy’s tongue was twisted with 

all his eagerness, but Mr. Turner understood. 

“ Great! ” he said. “ I’ll help you all I can. 
Come with me.” 

He led Timothy out behind the barn, and 
showed him a pile of old boards and posts. 

“ See that? ” he said. “ You may have as 
much of it as you want to build your shack, 
if you can get it up to your lot. I’m too busy 
to carry it up for you, but you’re welcome to 
it.” 

“ Good gracious ! Why, Mr. Turner, I’m 
ever so much obliged to you. I can build a 
splendid shack with that. Francis is going to 
help me. You see, we learned quite a little about 
building when we put up the sap-house. And 
I can easily pack it onto Carmencita. She will 
carry anything anywhere.” 

“Not now? Not with that load?” It was 
the housekeeper speaking. “ I found two brooms 
for you. They aren’t very old, but perhaps you 
can use them.” 


FORESTERS 79 

“ Oh, thank you. I’ll come again for the lum- 
ber." 

They heard him, going toward Grandfather’s, 
still calling, “ Any old brooms? Any old 
brooms? Shovels and pitchforks — any old 
brooms? ’’ though there were no houses, and the 
only people he met were boarders out for a walk. 
They took to the bushes by the roadside as the 
queer creature overtook and passed them, then 
stared as long as it was in sight. 

Next day he went back for the lumber, and he 
and Francis began work on the shack. Dave and 
Henry heard about it, and came up from the 
village, begging to be allowed to help. Even 
Donald strolled over from the big house, but he 
only sat on a stone and watched them, criticising 
their work. It was not finished in one day, but 
when it was done, it really was quite a shelter. 

The girls came up for a housewarming when it 
was finished, and brought a lunch. It was large 
enough for them all to sit in, if they did not move 
about much. Three of the girls sat on the bunk 
that was merely a shelf, propped against the 
wall, and could be used as seat, bed or table, or 


80 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


dropped out of the way entirely. Timothy was 
in the narrow doorway, and the rest were squat- 
ting on the floor. The shack was about eight feet 
high, with a flat roof. Outside was an extension 
of the roof, making a shelter under which Timo- 
thy had stored his supply of old brooms and 
shovels. The roof itself was thatched with pine 
boughs; and the inside of the shack was lined 
with oil-cloth, to keep the rain from coming in 
through the rather wide cracks between the 
boards. Mr. Turner’s lumber had not matched 
very well, but Amos said you got better ventila- 
tion if the walls weren’t too tight. Timothy had 
set up an old stove, and the stove-pipe stuck 
bravely out through the roof. There were win- 
dows, but no glass in them. The most important 
thing was the cupboard with a lock, built against 
one end, and holding several cans of soup, corn, 
meat and baked beans, and a large piece of a 
broken mirror. 

“ That’s to flash to the mountain with,” said 
Timothy. “ Abbott is teaching me the code, and 
we’re going to arrange with the man up there, so 
if there is a fire I can notify him at once.” 


FORESTERS 


81 


“ That’s silly,” drawled Donald. “ He could 
see it before you could. And you don’t think 
you’re going to live up here, watching for fires, do 
you? ” 

“ It isn’t either silly,” said Trudy indignantly; 
“ it’s splendid, and just what everybody ought to 
do, be prepared. My Santa Claus man says so, 
and he says too, the woods now are just as dry as 
they can be, and there isn’t a sign of rain, and 
there’s no telling what may happen, so there ! ” 

“ Oh, I don’t care. It’s nothing to me. I don’t 
have to stay here.” 

“ Say,” said Dave, “ I saw Mr. Blake in the 
store to-day. He had been to Concord.” 

“ I wish I knew what he went for,” said Tim- 
othy. “ Come on, let’s go home now.” 

When Timothy reached the house, he went to 
the shed-attic to put away some tools, and decided 
to go to his room by way of the secret passage. 
He did not mean to be especially quiet, but he 
was thinking very hard about the mysterious 
ways of the grown-ups, and came down the 
kitchen stairs slowly and softly. J ust before he 
turned into the room, he heard Stanley’s voice — 


82 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


“ That piece of land belongs to Adoniram This- 
sell, the clock-man. I looked up the records. 
Now that is the key to the whole situation, but 
where is Thissell? We must get hold of him be- 
fore we can go any further.” 

“ Sh! ” said Grandmother, and Timothy heard 
no more, but he knew who Mr. Thissell was. He 
w r as the old clock-man who used to live in a little 
house way back in the woods, but had not been 
seen in Todd’s Ferry for a long time. He was 
old and deaf, and considered rather cranky. His 
chief occupation was wandering about the coun- 
try mending watches and clocks. 

Miss Margaret broke her watch, and Mr. 
Johnston said, “ Well, Adoniram is due here 
pretty soon. He will fix it for you, Margaret.” 

She asked Timothy to be sure and let her know 
if he heard anything about the clock-man’s being 
at the village, but from the twinkle in Mr. John- 
ston’s eye when she spoke, Timothy made up his 
mind that he too was in the secret that had sent 
Stanley to Concord, and that seemed to pop up 
whenever Mr. Thissell’s name was mentioned. 

Grandmother was making green grape jelly. 


FORESTERS 


83 


There had been a jolly ride into the deep woods 
for the wild grapes, and now Grandmother, Miss 
Margaret and Mother were all making jelly. 
Timothy was interested in Grandmother’s cook- 
ing. “ I’ll time it for you, Grandmother,” he 
said. “ I know how. I’ll watch the clock. You 
tell me how many minutes it has to boil.” 

“ Now he careful, Timothy. You know if I 
spoil this jelly, I can’t get any more wild grapes. 
I’ll just run up and make the beds, and you call 
me the instant the clock says twenty minutes past 
ten.” 

For three or four minutes Timothy watched 
the hands of the kitchen clock; then he heard 
Claire calling and went to the door. 

“ I’m timing the jelly,” he said; “ I can’t come 
out now. You come in. It has to cook till 
twenty minutes past ten.” 

Claire had so much to say that the time flew, 
but still the clock did not say twenty minutes past 
ten. They could hear Grandmother overhead, 
walking back and forth as she made the beds. 
Then she came down-stairs. She looked at the 
clock. It was exactly quarter past ten. 


84 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 

“ I’m watching, Grandmother/’ said Timothy, 
“ and Claire is helping me/’ 

Grandmother sniffed — then she ran to the jelly 
— she listened. 

“ Mercy! ” she cried. “ The clock has stopped. 
My jelly is spoiled! ” 

Claire looked at her little watch. “ Oh, dear! ” 
she exclaimed. “ It is quarter of eleven.” 

“ Why,” said Timothy, “ what made the clock 
stop? I thought Grandfather fixed it.” 

“ I did fix it,” said Grandfather’s voice from 
the other room. “ What’s the matter now? 
Won’t it go?” 

“ Go? ” repeated Grandmother. “ Go! It has 
been stopped for half an hour, and the green 
grape jelly is ruined! ” 

Grandfather strode over to the shelf and took 
down the clock. “ I’ll fix it this time! ” he said. 

“ Oh, Father, let it alone. Leave your watch 
here, and when Adoniram comes, we’ll have it 
fixed right.” 

“ I can ’tend to this clock as well as Adoniram 
Thissell, and I’m going to do it, and what’s more, 
I’m going to do it now ! ” 


85 


FORESTERS 

He went over to the side table in the living- 
room, and swept the newspapers that covered it 
onto the floor; he threw back the cloth; he sat 
down and adjusted his spectacles; he took a 
screw-driver from the table drawer, and began to 
take out the screws from the clock. Timothy and 
Claire hung over the table, watching. Soon, the 
table was a litter of wheels, wires and tiny screws. 
The clock-face, looking so queer without any 
hands, lay in one corner. 

“ Don’t touch anything,” cautioned Grandfa- 
ther, “ because I know just what everything is 
and just where it goes, and I’ve got them all fixed 
the way I want them. Timothy, bring me the 
clock-oil.” 

Timothy brought the little bottle of awful- 
smelling oil and set it down carefully. Then he 
and Claire kept very still, looking while Grand- 
father took up this piece and that, peering at 
them, blowing, dusting, oiling. 

Outside, in the shed, Dilly crouched before a 
mouse-hole. She had been there a long while 
and had been very quiet, so quiet that the mouse 
thought she had gone away. He poked his head 


86 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

out. Dilly drew back into the shadow. He came 
out — and she sprang. 

The door from the shed behind Grandfather 
opened a crack, and into the room marched 
Dilly, the cat, proudly bringing her game to show. 
She was fond of Grandfather, and when she saw 
him sitting there, she wanted him to see her prize. 

“ Prr-aou! ” said Dilly, the cat, in her throat, 
without opening her jaws — and jumped onto the 
table, in the midst of clock-wheels and wires. 

“ Get out! ” roared Grandfather. Dilly, terri- 
fied and astonished, dropped the mouse. He 
darted across the table. She leaped after him, 
and over went table, wheels, clock and all, as 
Claire dodged the fleeing mouse. 

Grandmother came to the door and looked at 
the scene. “ Pick up the mess, Jonas,” she said 
with a sigh. “ There’s no use doing anything 
more until Adoniram comes. He’ll have to 
straighten the thing out. And give me your 
watch. I’ll hang it up, on the hook over the 
shelf.” 

“ Adoniram can’t come any too soon to suit 
me,” grumbled Grandfather, as he handed his 


FORESTERS 


87 


watch to Grandmother. “ Timothy, you pick up 
those pieces, and don’t miss one. They all belong 
somewhere, but it’s beyond me now.” 

“ Say,” whispered Timothy to Claire as she 
stooped beside him, “ I hope that old clock-man 
comes right off. Everybody wants to see him for 
something or other, and I do too. I’m going to 
ask him what it all means! ” 


CHAPTER VII 


THE CAMPING TRIP 

Ever since Abbott Kimball had told them 
about his experiences in the far West, Timothy 
and Trudy had longed for a really truly camping 
trip; one where they could carry supplies and a 
tent, pitch camp at the end of a hard day’s tramp, 
build a fire, cook supper, and then roll themselves 
up in their blankets and sleep out-of-doors all 
night long, far away from any house. They had 
told the other children, and Claire and Isabelle 
had teased for a camping trip before they left. 
Mr. Sims had written that their vacation might 
be cut short, as they would be needed in the pic- 
ture before long. Father and Mother were in 
favor of the plan, and offered to go, while Miss 
Margaret and Mr. Johnston declared they 
wouldn’t miss it for anything! Amos said if they 
didn’t ask him, he would simply follow their 
trail, and Abbott had laughed and said, “ Set 
88 



Out from the Shed Waddled Timothy 




















. 
















, 
































* 

. , . J 








































































FORESTERS 


89 


the day, folks, and get your traps ready. I’ll 
furnish the tents, and the place.” 

So, this morning, they were starting. They 
had met at the farmhouse, and Grandmother and 
Grandfather were bustling about, looking at their 
packs and supplies, talking and laughing. It was 
a funny group in the door-yard. Mother and 
Miss Margaret wore khaki bloomers, like the 
girls, and had blankets strapped over their shoul- 
ders. Mr. Johnston had on knee breeches; 
Claire’s field-glasses were hanging about his neck, 
and he carried a stout staff. Donald had decided 
to go, and had borrowed some old clothes from 
Ben Dobson. He did look so odd, just like Ben 
if you saw only his back, but not a bit like Ben if 
you caught a glimpse of his shiny black hair, so 
carefully brushed, or his soft white hands with 
their polished nails. 

“ I’ll bet he will look different before we get 
back,” giggled Belle to Trudy. “ Where is Tim- 
othy? Why doesn’t he hurry? ” 

“ Come, Timothy,” called Grandmother. 
“ It’s getting late and they want to start.” 

“ I’ll be there in a minute,” was the answer 


90 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 

from the shed-attic. “ Amos hasn’t come with the 
blackboard.” 

Amos was going to drive the blackboard in case 
any of the women or girls should get tired and 
feel like riding. Abbott had said there really 
should be one horse on a camping trip, and Amos 
had agreed. He was going to carry the supplies 
too, for Abbott had promised that the children 
should take turns riding on Carmencita. Just as 
they were getting fidgety, waiting, they heard his 
horn, and soon the ears of the horse came into 
view over the crest of the hill. Amos drove 
swiftly up to the door and stopped with a flourish. 

“ Hello,” he began — then — “ Look what’s 
coming! ” They looked. 

Out from the shed door waddled Timothy — 
and his kit ! Over one shoulder was a great blan- 
ket ; strapped on the other side was a hatchet, and 
hanging from his belt were — one coffee-pot, one 
tin dipper, one frying-pan, one tin plate ; he wore 
a khaki shirt and trousers; about his neck was 
knotted a red handkerchief, the ends hanging 
down his back. On his head was a wide-brimmed 
straw hat, and on his back, like a pack, was a 


FORESTERS 91 

bright-colored satin pillow. He carried a staff, 
like Mr. Johnston. He could just move, that 
was all. 

“ Mercy !” gasped Grandmother. “ He has 
my best sofa-pillow! Timothy Todd, you take 
that pillow straight back into the house.” 

“ Oh, Grandmother, it’s only the cover. I left 
the pillow in the shed-attic. I had to have a cover 
to carry my sweater and extra shirt in. I shall 
put my clothes in it and use it to sleep on to- 
night. That’s the way they do. I read it in a 
book.” 

“ Extra shirt! ” shouted Abbott, as soon as he 
could speak from laughter. “ How long do you 
think we are going to stay? I have to be back in 
less than six months. There are important mat- 
ters to be arranged.” 

“ Timothy, dump that stuff,” said Stanley. 
“ You’re not going on a polar expedition. Give 
Amos the camp kit and your sweater; yes, and 
the hatchet. It is a good idea to have that. 
What else is in the pillow? It’s heavy.” 

“ Some canned things. I read it was always a 
good idea to have something extra along. Oh, 


§2 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

yes, and my flour and bacon and rice and meal 
and tea — and the matches — they’re in that bun- 
dle, I guess. I’ve been packing so long I’ve kind 
of forgotten.” 

Abbott hooted, but Stanley said to him sternly, 
“ Stop that, now. The youngster has thought of 
everything. He could lead this trip himself, I 
believe, as well as you can. Timothy, put all your 
supplies into the buckboard. Abbott and I 
planned to grubstake this trip, but you never can 
have too much to eat. We may be glad you laid 
in a stock of provisions. But you needn’t make 
yourself into the pack mule. You want to have a 
little fun on the hike. Lighten up your pack, 
and we’ll start.” 

“ Good-bye,” called Grandmother. “ Now do 
take good care of those children, and don’t let 
them get their deaths of cold. You’d better come 
home to-right and sleep in your own beds.” 

They waved to her, and struck into the path 
that led down by the sap-house to Aunt The- 
resy’s. Amos drove around by the road. 

“ He knows where to go,” Stanley assured 
them. “ You won’t lose him.” 


FORESTERS 93 

“ Where are we going? ” 

The grown folks looked at each other and 
laughed. “ To a beautiful spot. You’ll see.” 

As they tramped along, the road began to seem 
a bit familiar to the children; they remembered 
clumps of pine trees, the brook that chattered 
merrily beside them, and the place where the 
woods ended and the meadow lay before them. 

“ Why,” called Timothy, “ this is the place 
where we came before with Abbott. What are 
we coming again for? Why don’t we go to a new 
place?” 

“ Perhaps the grown-ups haven’t ever seen it,” 
said Belle. “ You know Abbott thinks it’s pretty 
wonderful here, and maybe he wanted to show it 
to them.” 

“ Oh, we have all seen it, thank you,” laughed 
Miss Margaret, who was tramping with the girls. 
“ That’s the reason we are here now.” 

And not another word would any of the older 
people say. The children teased and guessed and 
wondered, but learned nothing. 

This time they did not stay on the ledge where 
they ate their dinner before,'but went until they 


94 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


came to a place where a huge stone cliff overhung 
a level spot, carpeted with soft grass, and shielded 
by tall pines on the north side. There was a 
spring bubbling from under the cliff, and near it 
an outcrop of granite, exactly right for a camp- 
fire. 

“ Here we are,” said Mr. Johnston, “ and there 
comes Amos down the road. I hear the rattle of 
the buckboard. Loosen your packs, boys, and 
run over and help him tote the tents and supplies, 
for here we stay till to-morrow afternoon. 
Ladies, make yourselves at home. Your rooms 
will be ready very soon.” 

Abbott had brought three small tents for the 
women and girls, and as soon as Amos and the 
boys arrived with them, began to make camp. 
The men cut small saplings, trimmed them, and 
set them up with the forked tops crossed, the 
width of the tent apart ; then stretched a rope be- 
tween, pegging the ends firmly to the ground. 
On this rope they hung the tent, spreading it 
wide, like the letter A, and pegged down the 
sides. They fastened the end flaps, and behold, 
the rooms were ready ! 


FORESTERS 


95 


“Where are we going to sleep?” inquired 
Donald. “ There doesn’t seem to be room for 
any more tents.” 

“ On the ground, goose,” was Timothy’s scorn- 
ful reply. “ Men don’t need tents in summer.” 

Donald looked rather doubtful, but Mr. John- 
ston showed him the warm blankets that would 
wrap tightly about them and explained that the 
fire would burn all night, and they would sleep 
near it. 

“ Won’t it be great! ” said Francis. “ Oh, I 
do hope something exciting will happen. Amos, 
are there any bears around here? ” 

“ I’ve never seen any. They do say there are 
wildcats on the mountain in winter.” 

“ There, don’t scare us,” begged Mother; “ a 
squirrel would look like a wildcat to me, in the 
night, out here.” 

The camp soon began to look very western and 
wild. The boys gathered firewood, and later col- 
lected spruce branches for the beds. Carmencita 
wandered about, nibbling the grass, and nosing at 
anything that came in her way. After dinner, 
Mr. Johnston and Amos went for a walk; Mother 


96 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

and Miss Margaret took a nap ; Stanley set his 
camera up and made some photographs, while 
Abbott wandered off by himself, unrolling his 
surveyor’s tape measure. The children ran 
about, exploring the place. 

Suddenly they heard Timothy’s voice on the 
cliff above them. 

“ Come on up and see what I’ve found! ” 

They looked at the steep face of the rock. 

“ How do we get up there? ” 

“ Around the back. It’s easy. Hurry — this is 
something strange. I’ve made a discovery.” 

Amos grinned. He and Mr. Johnston had 
just returned. “ Let’s go up,” he said. “ I think 
I know what he has found.” 

“ So do I,” said Father. “ I remember this 
ledge now. The place has changed since I was 
a boy, the trees have grown up so, but I know 
now what is up there.” And he called, “ Can you 
rock it, Timothy? ” 

There was a moment’s silence. Then — “ Jim- 
my, it moves! — Oh, say, hurry — hurry! ” 

They found him standing by a great boulder, 
fully as large as a room — oh, much bigger than 


FORESTERS 


97 


the shack, that was balanced on a ledge of rock; 
the boulder was of irregular shape, and in its 
crevices earth had lodged. In the earth the wind 
had planted seeds, and tiny plants and ferns grew 
there; under it was a deep hole that looked very 
dark and mysterious. The rock on which it stood 
was cracked, and in the crack grew two beech 
trees. Their yellow leaves had scattered over the 
boulder for many years, and some of the dry dead 
leaves clung to the sheltered spots. But the 
wonder was that the boulder was balancing on 
the ledge by its smallest, thinnest section — 
“ Look! ” shouted Timothy. “ Now you watch 
it! ” 

He leaned his whole weight on the boulder. 
Slowly, but surely, it moved ! And then it moved 
the other way. Again he did it, and again it 
rocked ! 

Trudy screamed. It was so big, and Timothy 
looked so small. 

“ Oh, look out — it might crush you! ” 

“ No danger,” said Abbott. 44 But I didn’t 
know there was anything like that on the lot. 
Timothy, you’ve surely made a discovery. That 


98 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


is what is known as a ‘ rocking boulder,’ and they 
are not so very common. That great mass of 
rock was brought down, millions of years ago, 
from some place in the far north by the ice that 
covered this whole country — a great glacier that 
moved slowly and irresistibly, but that was melted 
at last, and in its melting left that rock poised in 
such a manner that a slight push would move it.” 

“ And has it been here all that time? ” 

“ Yes, you see it is on the top of this ledge, and 
the winds have kept it clear from obstructions, 
and it is too heavy a mass for anyone to move. 
If buildings had been made here — well, anyway, 
it has never been disturbed, fortunately.” 

“Another natural attraction for the ” be- 

gan Mr. Johnston. 

“ For the what? Oh, why won’t you tell us? ” 

“ Stop, brother, don’t tease them any more. 
Tell them.” 

“ After supper, I will,” said Mr. Johnston sol- 
emnly. 

Timothy looked at his watch. “ It’s after 
four,” he said; “let’s go right down and have 
supper now.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE SECRET TOLD 

“ Begin! ” said Timothy. “ Begin! You said 
you’d tell us after supper, and it’s after supper 
now ! ” 

The supper was over, the dishes were washed 
and stacked ready for morning, the night’s sup- 
ply of firewood lay ready by the fire, and the 
whole party sat watching Mr. Johnston. He 
stood with his elbow on a great rock, looking 
across the valley at the mountain, rosy in the sun- 
set. Shadows were falling in the valley, but here 
and there one tree, taller than the rest, caught a 
ray of sunlight and glowed emerald-green above 
its dusky brothers. 

Mr. Johnston looked down at Timothy and 
laughed. “ Why do you think I can tell the 
secret? Don’t you think the rest know it 
too?” 

“ Do you know it, Amos? ” said Trudy. 

99 


100 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Your father and mother know, Trudy,” ex- 
claimed Claire. “ I can tell by the way they 
look.” 

“ Oh, we all know,” admitted Amos. “And 
practically everyone in the village knows but you 
children. You’re slow!” 

“ Do Grandfather and Grandmother know? ” 

“ And Mr. Perkins? ” 

“ Yes, and Mr. Turner, and Mr. McAdam, 
and Belle’s father, and the Senator — and Aunt 
Theresy, and ” 

“ Well,” interrupted Timothy, “ now I want 
to know.” 

“ It concerns us all,” began Mr. Johnston, 
“ and really it concerns you children more than 
anyone else, for you began it. Oh, I know you 
didn’t have any idea of what you were doing, but 
as I look back, I can see that it really started the 
day that Trudy came to Todd’s Perry.” 

“ But I didn’t know anybody here then,” said 
the bewildered Trudy. 

“ True, but as soon as you came, all the chil- 
dren in Todd’s Ferry tried to show you what a 
splendid place the country was; Amos, here, 


FORESTERS 


101 


taught you to see the wonders of the woods, and 
you, with your new friends, began to love Todd’s 
Ferry — and the country for itself — more and 
more. You found a friend among the Christmas 
trees — and he found several — and there were 
some more good times together. Then Father 
and Mother came, and Todd’s Ferry was home to 
us all. 

“ Next year, you children did some worth- 
while things for yourselves and learned that chil- 
dren all over the United States were doing simi- 
lar things, and you earned the reward offered 
by your Government — your Washington trip. 
There you saw a little of the great work that the 
Government is trying to do for its people, and 
you became even more interested in the grand 
out-of-doors. After you came home again, you 
had a chance to do something for someone else, 
and, from what you learned at Washington, you 
wanted to save Aunt Theresy’s trees. And all 
the time you were busy with your own affairs, we 
grown-ups have been watching you. Lately we 
have done some talking and planning among our- 
selves ” 


102 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY* 

“ I know — you had meetings at Mr. Me- 
Adam’s store — Bill said so.” 

“ Keep still, Timothy,” said Belle. “ Don’t 
interrupt.” 

“ You have given me a valuable idea in regard 
to my work in the forestry division. I talked it 
over with the Senator; he sent Abbott up here to 
look over the ground; Abbott has made a favor- 
able report, and we older citizens of Todd’s Ferry 
are now ready to do something worth-while our- 
selves.” He stopped. “ My voice is tired. Go 
on, Abbott, it’s your turn.” 

Abbott sat up and clasped his hands about his 
knees. 

“ It’s only this,” he said; “ Mr. Johnston has 
persuaded the United States Government to take 
the land where we are now, the valley below, and 
the mountain, for a National Park ” 

“ A National Park! ” 

“ Right here in Todd’s Ferry? ” 

“ Here — where we live? Why, heaps of 

people come to National Parks And 

they have automobile roads — and free camp 
sites ” 


FORESTERS 103 

“ We have a free camp site this minute,” 
laughed Amos. 

“ Wait/’ said Abbott, “ that’s only part of it. 
The principal thing is that the Government is go- 
ing to establish a School of Forestry here, prob- 
ably on the identical spot where we now are, if 
everything goes well.” 

Timothy leaped to his feet. “A school? 
Where they teach you how to be a Forest Ran- 
ger? Where you can learn everything about 

woods, and trails, and bears, and volcanoes 

Oh, say, can’t we find a geyser or something, the 
way John Colter did? Abbott, do you suppose 
the mountain was ever a volcano? Mightn’t it 
erupt again some day? ” 

Trudy was hugging Mr. Johnston. “ Oh, my 
darling Santa Claus man ! ” she whispered. 
“ You’re always giving somebody something! ” 

“ Don’t give me all the credit. I couldn’t have 
done a thing if the men who owned the land 
hadn’t been willing to give it to the Government. 
There was only enough of an appropriation to 
buy the mountain and the valley, and Abbott re- 
ported that this place was much the best for the 


104 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 

school site. There wasn’t any money to buy it, 
but as soon as the Todd’s Ferry folks knew that, 
they said, ‘ What of it? We will give the land 
for the school! ’ ” 

“ And that was what you were surveying for? ” 
“ Stanley took pictures all over the place. 
How did you know who owned all the land? Did 
Mr. Perkins really give some? ” 

“ Perkins started the thing,” replied Amos, 
“ and made Me Adam give that piece over there 
when he wanted it for a sheep pasture. Perkins 
told him he’d learn more about sheep-raising 
from the school than he could figure out for him- 
self in a thousand years.” 

“Are grown people going to the school? ” in- 
quired Timothy. “ I thought school was for boys 
and girls.” 

“ There will be lectures for old and young, and 
demonstrations and exhibits of the best ways to 
manage farms and wood-lots. We know that we 
must learn a great deal. You children have 
opened our eyes,” was Father’s answer to this. 

“ What will the school look like? ” 

“ I expect it will have four walls, and two 


FORESTERS 


105 


chimneys, perhaps more, and — oh, yes, some win- 
dows, and a door or two so you can come out if 
you don’t like it ” 

Mr. Johnston got no further with his nonsense, 
for the children raced at him, climbing over him, 
and clamoring for him to be serious. 

Abbott was fumbling at his pack. “ Here,” 
he called, “ here’s a sketch I made from the 
plans.” 

They crowded about him, looking eagerly as 
he showed them the drawing of a beautiful stone 
building with two long low wings at the sides, 
and a tall tower above the main entrance. “ It 
will face the mountain,” he explained, “ and will 
show from a long distance. There will be a fine 
view of it from the new State Road.” 

“ And people, riding along in their auto- 
mobiles, will say, ‘ Oh, what is that lovely 
building? ’ ” said Claire, “ just like the tourists 
out West.” 

“ How soon will it be done? ” Timothy wanted 
to know. “ Did Grandfather say I could leave 
Miss Fields’ school and begin to study forestry 
right off? ” 


106 TRUDY. AND TIMOTHY 

“ Who gave this very spot where it is going to 
be? ” said Trudy. 

Nobody answered. The grown-ups looked un- 
comfortably at each other. 

“ Told you so,” said Amos. “ I told you they 
would find it out the first thing and you see I 
was right.” 

“ Find out what? ” 

Mr. Johnston coughed. “ Well, you see, that 
hasn’t been exactly given yet, although I have no 
doubt it will be, very soon. This piece of land 
belongs to Mr. Thissell, the clock-man, and we 
haven’t had a chance to speak to him about it 
yet.” 

“ Oh,” cried Timothy, “ so that’s why every- 
body is so anxious to see the clock-man, is it? 
Where is he? Why doesn’t somebody find him? 
Can’t you write to him? ” 

“We have tried to, but none of the letters seem 
to reach him. They say he is due here very soon 
now, and then we shall talk the matter over with 
him. I have no doubt that everything will be all 
right.” 

Amos grunted. “ You haven’t had much ex- 


FORESTERS 107 

perience with Adoniram, I see,” he muttered to 
himself. 

They had all been so interested and had so 
much to say about the wonderful secret that no 
one had thought about time until Miss Margaret 
said, “ The fire is almost out. Why, it is ten 
o’clock ! Bedtime.” 

In the middle of the night, Timothy woke sud- 
denly. He sat up, bewildered for a moment, 
then he remembered. They were camping on the 
site of the new school. There was the smoulder- 
ing fire ; there were Amos and Uncle Sam, snor- 
ing in their blankets; Francis lay rolled in Miss 
Margaret’s steamer rug. Stanley and Abbott 
were in sleeping bags. No one stirred — yet there 
had been a strange noise ! There it was again — 
a heavy step beyond the bushes — a dragging and 
shuffling as of something being pulled over the 
ground! A bear, carrying off a man, would 
sound like that, Timothy thought. The moon 
was low in the sky. The trees cast long black 
shadows that might hide wild animals. Timothy 
reached over and touched Abbott. He was 
awake instantly. 


108 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


“ What is it? ” 

“ A noise — out there! Hear it? ” 

Abbott listened. The step and scuffle came 
again, but further away. 

“ That’s only Carmencita, browsing. She’s 
pulled up her stake, and gone looking for fodder. 
She likes meals at all hours. I know her step.” 
He sat up and looked about. “ Oh, see the north- 
ern lights ! ” 

Timothy turned. There, where the mountain 
loomed like a great black cloud against the dark 
sky, were long fingers of light, now narrow, now 
broad, reaching up to the zenith, and flickering 
away to the horizon. Sometimes they were white, 
again creamy yellow, and as Abbott and Timothy 
looked, the whole northern sky flamed for an in- 
stant with rose, then the lights faded. A bird 
gave a sleepy chip. They heard a whippoorwill 
begin to call. 

“ Lie down and go to sleep,” said Abbott. 
“ It isn’t morning yet.” 

“ Almost, isn’t it? ” said Timothy. 

In the morning, camp was a busy place. “ We 
will get breakfast,” said Miss Margaret, as she 


FORESTERS 109 

and Mother came from their tent. 44 You chil- 
dren have a good time.” 

But soon the children, splashing at the spring, 
heard her call in surprise, “ Why, where is all the 
food?” 

Everybody ran. Of all the sandwiches, the 
cold chicken, the loaves of bread, the frosted cake, 
the turnovers and doughnuts, — not one crumb 
remained! Not even the papers were to be 
found! And the baskets were gone, too! 

“ Who can have taken it? ” cried Claire. 

Timothy remembered the noise in the night. 
He remembered what Abbott had said about Car- 
mencita’s meals at all hours. Abbott remem- 
bered, too. Together they ran for the burro. 
She had wandered a long way, but they followed 
her trail, and found it scattered with napkins, bits 
of paper and pieces of the baskets. Then they 
found the baskets, or what was left of them, 
broken and chewed, and very, very empty ! Car- 
mencita, returning for her breakfast, met them 
and sent forth her song when she saw her master. 

“ You rascal,” scolded Abbott. 44 Up to your 
old tricks, I see.” 


110 TRUDY. AND TIMOTHY 

“ Here is the thief,” he called to the rest of the 
party. “ I’m sorry, but Carmencita has eaten all 
the supplies.” 

“ She’s even eaten some of the baskets,” added 
Amos, examining the wreck. “ Well, I see where 
we don’t have any breakfast.” 

Timothy went silently to a place behind one of 
the big rocks. He came back, loaded with tin 
cans, bundles and boxes. 

“ You can have these,” he said. “ It’s lucky I 
brought them along. Here’s some bacon in a 
glass jar — that’s all right — and the flour and 
meal I put in tin boxes. I read about that in one 
of the Government leaflets I got in Washington. 
I guess you can cook enough to last us until we 
get home.” 

On the way home, they were tramping through 
the woods to the village when they struck the trail 
of some person who had gone before them. 
F rancis noticed a broken branch. Isabelle found 
footprints in a muddy hollow. And once, far 
ahead, they all caught a glimpse of a dim figure, 
bent under some sort of a pack. 

“ Make believe there are Indians in the woods,” 


FORESTERS 111 

cried Timothy. “ I can see them hiding all about 
us!” 

But the truth was really more exciting than 
Timothy’s make-believe enemies, for when they 
reached the store, Mr. Me Adam said, “ Well, 
well, folks, you must have been right behind 
Adoniram. He just tramped over the moun- 
tain, and he’s ridden up with Jonas, to stay the 
night.” 


CHAPTER IX 


THE CLOCK-MAN COMES — AND GOES! 

Mr. Thissell had come at last! And just 
when they wanted him so badly ! They looked at 
each other. Timothy leaped from the counter 
where he had been sitting. 

“ Come on,” he cried. “ Let’s hurry. We’ll 
go right up to Grandfather’s and tell Adoniram 
all about it. Then we can fix it right up the first 
thing in the morning. How soon will they start 
to build, Abbott? ” 

Mr. Johnston held him back. 

“ Wait a minute,” he said; “ this is a matter 
for us older people. We thought up this plan, 
and we are going to carry it through without any 
help from you youngsters. You have had all the 
glory of the Todd’s Ferry improvements so far. 
Give us a chance.” 

“ That’s right,” added Father. “ You keep 
112 


FORESTERS 


113 


out of this, Timothy. And all the rest of you 
children. We’ll see Adoniram and talk it all 
over with him. As soon as we get his consent, the 
thing is done. Then we shall send word to the 
Senator, Abbott will go to Washington with his 
report, Mr. Johnston will set the wheels of the 
Forestry Department spinning, and then, hurrah 
for the Government School of Forestry at Todd’s 
Ferry! ” 

“ There was one thing you didn’t mention, Mr. 
Johnston,” said Abbott. “ You didn’t say any- 
thing about the new movement to reforest the 
state by enlisting the boys in the work.” He 
turned to the boys. “ That’s one of his plans, 
and it’s going to be a success, too. The Govern- 
ment will teach the boys to set out and care for 
trees, to know what kinds will thrive in certain 
soils and locations, and will give prizes for the 
best results.” 

“ That’s the reason my Santa Claus man gave 
us all some land,” cried Trudy. “ He wanted us 
to be interested, didn’t you? ” 

Mr. Johnston laughed. “ Oh, well, a little 
land won’t come amiss to anyone, and there will 


114 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

be plenty of uses for it when you all go to the new 
school.” 

Amos strolled in from the doorway where he 
had been watching the boarders on Todd House 
piazza. 

“ Better have a class for summer boarders, 
too,” he said. “ Every single person on that pi- 
azza is making birch-bark napkin rings, or pic- 
ture frames or something, and there’s a pile of 
bark on the floor big enough to make a fleet of 
canoes.” 

“ If they took that off my trees ” began 

Timothy. 

“ It can’t be helped now, but perhaps next 
summer the boarders will all be helping set out 
shrubs on the grounds of the new school,” said 
Miss Margaret. “ Come, children, we really 
must get home.” 

At the farmhouse they found Mr. Thissell sit- 
ting in the living-room, before the table, with all 
the parts of the clock spread out on it. Grand- 
father was in the rocking-chair, watching him. 
The table looked very much the same as it did 
before Dilly upset it, but Mr. Thissell seemed to 


FORESTERS 115 

know where every little wheel and spring be- 
longed; he picked up this one and that, oiling and 
filing, and fitting them together. Timothy 
wanted dreadfully to ask him about the land, but 
Mr. Johnston's last words before going on to the 
big house had been, “ Now, remember, this is our 
scheme," and he did not quite dare. He did fol- 
low Grandmother out into the kitchen, though, 
and whisper to her that now he knew the myste- 
rious secret, and he was dreadfully alarmed when 
she said right out loud, “ Yes, Jonas said they 
were going to camp on the school site." 

“ Hush ! " hissed Timothy. “ Mr. Thissell will 
hear you, and we must not tell him till Mr. John- 
ston comes over after supper." 

“Gracious me!" exclaimed Grandmother. 
“Adoniram can't hear me. He’s as deaf as a 
post. You have to get right up to his ear, and 
then shout as loud as you can." 

Timothy was relieved to hear that. He de- 
cided to stay in the house that evening. Perhaps 
he could hear the grown-ups when they shouted 
at Mr. Thissell. If they had to talk as loud as 
that, surely it wouldn’t be any harm to listen — 


116 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

you couldn’t help hearing! And he could hardly 
wait to have Mr. Thissell say “ Yes.” 

Mr. Thissell only looked at Timothy when he 
went in to say, “ How do you do? ” and grumbled 
to Grandfather about the weather, about the 
clock, about the cat, and most of all, about the 
boarders in Todd’s Ferry. “ Too many folks in 
this village nowadays,” he said. “A man can’t 
take a walk in the woods without running into a 
parcel of young folks, climbing over the walls, 
tearing down the fences, leaving the bars loose so 
the cattle get out — and they’re so impudent, too. 
Look at you and whisper and laugh, then, next 
day, come to your house and want you to fix their 
watches and not charge ’em what it’s worth, and 
growl over the pay. — This is a pretty poor clock, 
Jonas, but I’ll do the best I can with it.” 

Timothy was indignant. At supper-time it 
was even worse. Mr. Thissell found fault with 
Grandmother’s cooking, and asked for things that 
were not on the table, but Grandmother and 
Grandfather did not seem to mind at all. Tim- 
othy scowled, and if it had not been that he was 
so curious to know what Mr. Thissell would say 


FORESTERS 


117 


when the grown-ups told him about the wonder- 
ful plan, he would have gone up to the big house. 
But he stayed at home, and followed Grandfa- 
ther and Mr. Thissell when they took a walk 
about the farm. Amos was lounging near the 
barn, and joined Timothy. 

“ McAdam’s coming as soon as the mail is 
sorted,” said Amos, “ and Turner, and Mr. John- 
ston. Perkins will be here, and your father. Oh, 
Adoniram little knows what’s going to happen 
this evening! ” 

“ Where are your bees? ” came Mr. Thissell’s 
queer voice as they crossed the lot behind the 
house. 

“ We don’t keep any,” shouted Grand- 
father. 

“ Don’t keep bees? That’s no kind of a farm, 
without bees. And it’s lazy and thriftless, not 
keeping bees. Bees are your best workers, and 
you don’t have to pay ’em a cent,” he chuckled. 
“ They work all day, and store up honey that 
tastes mighty good on hot biscuits, I tell you. 
There’s lots of crops you can’t raise without bees 
to cross the pollen. This place would look a sight 


118 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

better with a nice row of hives down under those 
trees.” 

“Adoniram thinks bees know more than folks,” 
said Amos to Timothy. 

As if he had heard the remark, Mr. Thissell 
turned to them. “ You boy,” he addressed Tim- 
othy, “ you’re pretty smart, I hear — why don’t 
you get some bees? ’Tending bees would be a 
sight better than racin’ round in the woods, 
tackin’ up signs that nobody will ever read, and 
tryin’ to make over the wood-lots. There’s al- 
ways been enough wood to use, ever since I 
needed any, and I guess there always will be. 
You take my advice, and get that city man on the 
hill to buy you some bees. I hear he’s free with 
his money. Needn’t be afraid of gettin’ stung — 
you can make friends with bees, same as you can 
with hens — and, anyway, bee stings are good for 
rheumatism.” 

“ Timothy,” interposed Grandfather, before 
Timothy could make his angry reply, “ I want 
you to go over to Trudy’s and help the girls keep 
house this evening.” 

Mr. McAdam and Mr. Turner were coming 


119 


FORESTERS 

up the road as Timothy, dreadfully disappointed, 
went up the path to the little red house. All 
through the evening, while they were playing 
games, the children wondered what was happen- 
ing in the farmhouse. They imagined the men 
sitting in the big living-room, shouting at Mr. 
Thissell, telling him about the new school, show- 
ing him the drawings, and explaining the won- 
derful and interesting things that would be 
taught there; they could almost see him leaning 
forward with his hand behind his ear so that he 
should not miss a word, and then sitting back and 
saying heartily, “ Sure, I’ll be glad to give my 
land!” 

At ten o’clock Timothy went home. The 
meeting was over. Grandfather was locking up 
the barn. 

“ Well, what did he say? ” cried Timothy. “ Is 
it all settled? Where is he? Has he gone to 
bed?” 

“ I’ll tell you all about it in the morning,” was 
Grandmother’s answer. “ Go to bed now. It’s 
late.” 

In the morning there was no place at the break- 


120 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

fast table for Mr. Thissell. Timothy looked 
amazed. “Has he had breakfast so early?” 
he asked. Then he saw Grandmothers face. 
“ Well, tell me,” said Timothy. 

At just about that moment the other children 
were asking the same question in their houses, 
and someone — mother or father — was telling the 
same dreadful story — just as poor Grandmother 
did. 

“ I’m sorry, Timothy,” she began, “ but you’ve 
got to know it — all of you. Mr. Thissell didn’t 
like the plan, and he refused to have anything to 
do with it. He said a good many things I 
needn’t repeat, and then he put on his hat and 
left the house. I don’t know whether he went to 
the hotel or not. .It seems as if our plan had 
struck a snag, but the men are going to see him 
again this morning and try to talk to him again. 
They hope that he will change his mind.” 

Timothy was speechless. 

He went out, and across lots to Trudy’s house. 
The girls were on the ledge under the great pine, 
sitting very quiet. Their handkerchiefs were 
rolled into tight little wet balls in their hands. 


FORESTERS 


121 


Tears dropped down their cheeks as Timothy 
came shuffling slowly through the grass. 

“ Isn’t it perfectly awful, Timothy?” said 
Trudy. “ Did you ever know anybody could be 
so mean? With all the rest willing, too. What 
can they do now? ” 

“ Perhaps he will change his mind,” Claire 
said. “ I should think he would be so ashamed 
of himself! ” 

“And if they can’t get that one piece of land, 
the whole thing is no good, for there isn’t another 
spot suitable for the school, and the Government 
has only money enough to buy the mountain and 
the valley. If the townsfolk will give the land 
for the school, they will buy the rest for the park. 
That’s the agreement, Mr. Johnston said.” 

Francis had come up, and was speaking. 

“ It’s even worse than that,” he went on, after 
a moment; “ if we don’t have it here in Todd’s 
Ferry, the whole plan will be changed, and the 
school will be built in the West.” 

There didn’t seem to be anything to say. 
They sat silent, until Timothy jumped to his 
feet. 


122 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

“ Well, there’s no use sitting here like this. 
Let’s get busy. The grown folks said they 
wanted to do this themselves, but I’ve just got to 
find out where Mr. Thissell is, anyway. Let’s go 
down to the village and find him, and then we’ll 
get some of the men to tackle him again.” 

“ Yes, let’s,” agreed Trudy; “ that wouldn’t be 
interfering. That would be helping.” 

A little way down the road, they met Belle and 
Amos. Belle was very downcast, and even Amos 
was silent. 

“ Oh, Amos,” said Timothy, “ you were there 
— tell us all about the meeting. Grandmother 
won’t say anything.” 

“ It was pretty bad. I could see from the first 
that Adoniram wasn’t taken with the scheme at 
all. He’s terribly set in his notions, and he don’t 
like the idea of strangers coming here. Adoni- 
ram is a man who wants to have everything just 
the same as it always has been. And he said 
there was too much schooling in fol-de-rols any- 
way. Said if he could stop it, he would. He 
never would give a foot or sell a foot of his land 
for a school to learn about trees and weeds. If 


FORESTERS 123 

folks wanted to go to school, let ’em go where 
they could learn to spell and write their names, 
and add up figures so they could tell how much 
money they had in the bank, if they had sense 
enough to save any. Oh, I tell you, Adoniram 
made quite a speech when he got started.” 

“ And he wouldn’t agree to anything? ” 

“Not a thing, and finally he got mad clean 
through, and pretended not to hear, though we 
were all hollering loud enough to be heard over to 
Prattville, and at last he shouted, £ No — No — 
No, I tell you, no!’ and put on his hat and 
took his kit and marched out of the house and 
down the road.” 

“ We’re going to find him,” said Timothy. 
“ We’re on the way to the village now. We 
thought we’d get somebody to try again. You 
come on, Amos, and talk to him. Maybe he’s be- 
ginning to be sorry now. Didn’t anybody show 
him my leaflets from the Forestry Department? 
I put them on the table so he could see them. 
Perhaps he doesn’t realize how important for- 
estry is. Mr. Perkins didn’t at first. I’ll go back 
and get some of the leaflets, and let him take ’em 


124 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 

to read. Perhaps that would make him change 
his mind.” 

Amos shook his head. 

“No use going,” he said. “Adoniram has de- 
parted. He isn’t anywhere in the village. I’ve 
been looking for him myself. He’s gone again, 
and nobody knows where! ” 


CHAPTER X 


AMOS LINES A BEE 

Todd's Ferry,, next morning, was a very 
gloomy place. All the older people were more 
disturbed than they would admit to the children, 
and the children themselves were ready to cry 
with disappointment. It was when they were all 
sitting on the grass in front of the big house that 
Miss Margaret called from the piazza, “ Chil- 
dren, Amos is telephoning. He wants you to 
meet him at the brook, near the Primeval Pines. 
He says he will bring Belle, and he wants you 
to get Abbott and Stanley, and start right 
away.” 

“ Fm not going,” said Timothy. “ What’s 
the use? ” 

“ Oh, come on,” teased Francis. “Anything 
is better than sitting here, doing nothing.” 

Timothy loitered behind, but when Abbott and 
Stanley joined the party, he was feeling better. 

125 


126 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

A little way from Aunt Theresy’s house, they 
found Belle and Amos. 

“ What are we going to do? ” asked Trudy. 

Amos smiled. 

u Going to hunt. I’m getting jealous of these 
two wild Westerners, with their stories of grizzly 
bears, and elk, and eagles, and forest fires, and so 
on. I’ve invited them to come along this morn- 
ing and see some real hunting. It’s time New 
Hampshire showed them something.” 

“ What are we going to hunt, Amos? ” 

“A bee!” 

“ A bee? ” It was Timothy who spoke. “ Oh, 
gee — I won’t hunt any old bees. They sting 
you — and all that old Mr. Thissell talked about 
was bees. I shan’t go.” 

But when Abbott began asking eager ques- 
tions, and saying that he had heard about locating 
bee-trees, but had never seen it done, Timothy 
felt differently. They were strolling along 
through the woods, and Amos was talking, when 
all at once he stopped. — “ There’s a honey-bee 
now — on that goldenrod. Might as well start 
now as any time.” 


FORESTERS 


127 

“ I’ll chase him,” shouted Timothy. “ I can 
see him ever so far.” 

“ Wait a minute,” called Amos. “ Come back 
here. That isn’t the way to hunt a bee. Come 
back and get the ammunition.” 

The girls crowded about as Amos took from 
his pocket a small bottle filled with a colorless 
liquid. “ Here it is,” he laughed, “ here’s all the 
kit you need to hunt a bee. Easier than hunting 
grizzlies, isn’t it, Abbott? ” 

“ You’re right,” said the ranger, laughing. 

He looked about till he found a little clearing 
where the goldenrod bloomed. He cut a tall 
branch from a bush, and, sharpening the end, 
stuck it in the ground among the goldenrod. 
Then he pulled the leafy top down, and sprinkled 
it with the liquid. 

“ What is it? ” Trudy asked. 

“ Sugar and water, with a little honey. It is 
just about the consistency of real flower honey. 
All sit down now, and wait for the bees to find it. 
There ought to be a good many bees on this gol- 
denrod.” 

“ When they find your honey, what do we do? ” 


128 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Then we chase ’em, don’t we? ” demanded 
Timothy eagerly. 

“ Why, yes, in a way. We watch to see which 
way the bee flies — we ‘ line ’ him, as the saying 
is ” 

“ Oh,” cried Francis, “ now I know what you 
mean when you say you make a bee-line for any 
place.” 

“ Yes, you go the most direct way. A bee, 
laden with honey, will fly straight for the hive, 
or for the bee-tree, if he is a wild bee,” Amos ex- 
plained carefully. 

“ Oh, I hope we catch a wild o*ne! ” exclaimed 
Timothy. 

They sat quiet now, watching the branch that 
had been baited. Bees came to the goldenrod, 
and buzzed provokingly over the low blossoms. 
At last, before any of the others could see him, 
Amos called softly, “ One of them has found the 
bait.” And then they saw the bee, circling 
against the blue sky, high above the honied 
branch. Down he came, now floating toward it, 
now flying this way and that; it seemed as if he 
would never alight. He flew up again on a puff 



“Here's a Deserted House" 






FORESTERS 129 

of a breeze — then he turned to the waving 
branch. 

“ He smells it — he smells it! ” cried Belle. 

The bee alighted on the leaves. They could no 
longer see him. 

“ Watch sharp, now,” cautioned Amos. “As 
soon as he gets all he can carry, he will fly for the 
tree. See which way he goes.” 

“ I see him — I see him! ” screamed Timothy, 
“ There he goes — to the north.” 

Amos scrambled to his feet — then he sat down 
again. “ Wait,” he said, “ he will come back. 
We can judge how far away the tree is by the 
time he is gone. A loaded bee will fly about a 
mile in five minutes, and take perhaps two min- 
utes to leave his load in the hive.” 

Timothy’s watch was out before Amos finished 
speaking. 

In the next fifteen minutes, other bees found 
the sticky sweetness, but none of them flew in the 
direction taken by the first bee. They seemed to 
be rovers, and Amos paid no attention to them. 
He was watching the north. 

It was exactly fourteen minutes, Timothy said, 


130 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

when Amos saw the bees coming again — several 
of them this time. They flew straight for the 
branch, loaded themselves with the bait, and flew 
again to the north. 

“ Time to move,” said Amos, and they all 
tramped through the woods, after the bees. Per- 
haps a quarter of a mile further on, Amos re- 
baited the bush and set it up in another clearing, 
first waving it in the air for a few minutes. The 
bees found it again, and this time flew in a more 
westerly direction. 

“ It’s a good hunt,” he said, after he had set the 
trap for the fourth time, and the bees were com- 
ing in greater numbers and staying away only a 
few minutes. “ We’re almost there now.” 

“ It would be a joke on us if it wasn’t a bee- 
tree at all, but somebody’s hives,” said Abbott. 
“ I hope they are wild bees — I’m getting honey- 
hungry.” 

“ Looks like a bee-tree to me,” replied Amos. 
“ There isn’t any house around here that I re- 
member, but, to tell you the truth, I don’t exactly 
know where we are, we have made so many 
turns.” 


FORESTERS 


131 


Abbott laughed. “ You may be a good bee- 
hunter, but you’re a poor woodsman; you 
couldn’t lose me in these woods. I’ll bet I could 
lead you straight to Mr. Johnston’s house — in a 
bee-line.” 

Timothy had been running ahead. They could 
hear him crashing through the underbrush. He 
called to them: 

“ Say, here’s a deserted house! Come on — 
I’m right over here. Oh, hurry up and see what 
I’ve found! ” 

They hurried. The trees that had seemed so 
thick, stopped abruptly at the edge of an old, 
weed-grown, ploughed field. Beyond that was a 
house, staring at them from uncurtained windows 
— the house looked like a great face with eyes 
wide open. And the faded red door was like the 
mouth. Elm trees grew close to two sides of it, 
with branches that scratched the house when the 
wind blew. Tall old lilac bushes made a damp 
spot at one corner. The door-stone had fallen 
away from the sill, and ferns grew in the space 
between. No one had gone in at that door for a 
long, long time. The road ran by far below, for 


132 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


the house stood on a high bluff, and a long wind- 
ing driveway led up from the road. On the other 
side, they could see the gray barn, and the corn- 
crib standing on its stilts so that the rats could not 
reach the corn. Everything was very still. They 
stood and looked and listened. And then, they 
all heard it ! 

A low steady humming that seemed to come 
from the deserted house! It was dreadfully 
scary. If the sun had not been shining at eleven 
o’clock in the forenoon — if Amos and Abbott and 
Stanley had not been there — the children would 
not have stayed a minute. Even now, they trem- 
bled, and looked at the men. 

Amos was puzzled. He looked all around. 
He looked down. He looked up. Then he 
laughed aloud, and pointed. 

“ See there!” 

At the back of the house, high under the eaves, 
were some small round holes, each with a little 
shelf beneath it. The humming came from these 
holes ! And then everybody laughed and shouted, 
and exclaimed, and ran closer to look. 

The bees were coming and going from the 


FORESTERS 133 

small round holes. They were crawling over the 
shelves before going inside to leave their burdens, 
or creeping out to go after more. This was the 
bee- tree ! 

“ Oh, what a queer place! ” 

“ Would you ever think bees would live in a 
place like this? ” 

Abbott spoke. “ We can’t take any of this 
honey. This is no wild bee-tree.” 

“ It’s a deserted house, isn’t it? ” 

“ Somebody lives here,” said Claire. “ See, 
there’s a towel hanging on that line.” 

“ Who does live here? ” 

They turned to Amos. 

“ We have found more than bees,” was his an- 
swer. “ I know where we are now, but I was 
completely turned about. I never came just this 
way before. This is Adoniram Thissell’s house ! ” 
“ Come on,” shouted Timothy, “ let’s see if he’s 
home. I’ve got some of my leaflets. I carry 
them with me wherever I go, in case I meet him. 
He’s got to read ’em and change his mind ! ” 

“ Surely he doesn’t live here,” said Isabelle, 
who had been looking in the window. “ There 


134 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

isn’t any furniture in this room, and the door is 
fastened with a board nailed to the floor.” 

“ He only uses the back part of the house,” 
was Amos’s explanation. “ But I don’t believe 
he is here.” 

“ We’ll see, anyway,” said Trudy. “ I’ll go 
around and knock at the back door.” 

“ He couldn’t hear you.” 

“ I’ll make him see me.” 

They went round to the back of the house. In 
the orchard, bluebirds were darting from old tree 
to old tree, and now and then an oriole flashed 
through the air. But there was no sign of Mr. 
Thissell. They peeped in at the windows, and 
saw his stove with no fire, and his table appar- 
ently set for the next meal, but with all the dishes 
neatly covered with a red and white checked cloth. 
It was evident that he was not at home. 

While they were prowling about, trying to find 
a trace of him, Abbott was wandering here and 
there, looking up at certain big trees, examining 
the distant hills with his glasses, and chuckling to 
himself. 

He was more amused when he came back and 


FORESTERS 


13 5 


saw once more the dismal faces that had greeted 
Amos at the Big Pines. 

“ Isn’t it terrible? ” mourned Trudy, “ to find 
his house like this, and then not to know where 
he is? ” 

“ I’ll bet you anything you don’t know where 
you are yourselves.” 

“ Of course we don’t — and you don’t either! ’* 
was Timothy’s cross reply. 

“ Oh, yes I do, and when I show you, you will 
all feel better. Follow me now — up this hill, and 
over the wall.” 

They climbed up through Mr. Thissell’s or- 
chard, crossed an open field, went through a 
patch of woods, beyond the wall. Timothy be- 
gan to look about him sharply. 

“ Somebody’s been setting out new trees here,” 
said Stanley. 

“ Say,” called Timothy, “ I know now! This 
is my land that Mr. Johnston gave me — and the 
shack is right over there! ” 

“ Right here,” said Abbott, pushing through a 
last clump of undergrowth. 

There they were — directly behind Timothy’s 


136 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


shack. But when they turned to look, Mr. This- 
sell’s house had disappeared. 

“ It’s there, just the same,” Abbott assured 
them, “ and if you cut out a bit of this under- 
brush, and trim up the trees a little — I’ll show 
you how, and it will improve your place, Tim- 
othy — you can see the house perfectly plain 
from the shack.” 

“ Well, I declare,” exclaimed Amos, “ I never 
realized before that Adoniram’s land came away 
up here.” 

“ Do you know what I’m going to do? ” de- 
manded Timothy of the whole party. “ I’m go- 
ing to cut that vista right now, this minute, and 
I’m going to get Grandmother to let me live here 
at the shack, and I’m going to watch till that 
Adoniram Thissell comes home, and then I’m go- 
ing down and tell him a few things! ” 

“ Oh, you couldn’t stay up here all alone.” 

“ I’ll tell you, Timothy,” cried Francis. 
“ We’ll get all the boys to help, and we can take 
turns watching.” 

“ I’ll help,” promised Amos, “ but you won’t 
need to sleep here, for Adoniram will stay three 


FORESTERS 


137 


or four days when he does come. He’s likely to 
appear almost any time now to look out for his 
bees. Perhaps we have not done such a bad day’s 
work, after all, even if we didn’t get any honey.” 

“ Come on,” said Timothy, “ let’s go home 
now. I’ll have to tell Grandmother before I be- 
gin work, and I want to get some supplies and 
bring them up here this afternoon. And we must 
see Dave and Henry, and Ben Dobson and Bill 
— they will like to stay here at the shack. I’m 
going to have an awful busy afternoon. Abbott, 
can’t I borrow Carmencita? ” 

“ Of course you can — any time you want her. 
Just go and take her. Don’t bother to ask! ” 


CHAPTER XI 


ON THE LOOKOUT 

Carmencita was very busy and very indig- 
nant that afternoon. Four times did she climb 
the hill from the farmhouse to the shack, and four 
times did she amble down, with a boy on her 
weary back. Dave and Henry had come to help, 
and had brought something that delighted Tim- 
othy — a real ladder that Dave’s father had given 
the boys. They offered to let Timothy keep it at 
the shack. 

“We can climb a tree with it and see ever so 
far,” said Henry. “ I’ll bet we could climb the 
Big Pines if we got a start with this ladder.” 

“ I know something better than that,” cried 
Timothy. “ It’s kind of a short ladder for trees, 
but it is just right to reach the roof of the shack. 
We’ll build a lookout on the roof, and watch 
from there. We can draw the ladder up after us 
when we are in the lookout, and no one can 
bother us.” 


138 


FORESTERS 


139 


For Carmencita’s fifth trip, they loaded the 
ladder and some of the old lumber from Mr. 
Turners place on her back. She turned her head 
slowly to look at her load. She started reluc- 
tantly up the road, looked backward once more, 
and lay down ! And there she stayed ! Coaxing, 
threats, promises of dinner, carrots held tempt- 
ingly before her — all were in vain. Finally the 
boys had to carry the ladder themselves. They 
left the lumber beside the road, and Amos, com- 
ing along in the buckboard, saw it — then he saw 
Carmencita, quiet and happy, and the ladder- 
tracks where the boys had dragged it. The 
tracks led toward the shack. 

“ Well, old lady,” said Amos, “ you’ve struck, 
have you? Guess I’ll steal your job, and see how 
things are progressing on the hill.” 

He loaded the lumber on the buckboard and 
drove up the road. He met the boys coming 
back. 

“ Here you are,” he called. “All your stuff. 
Your Mexican friend back there sent you her love 
and hopes you are having as good a time as 
she is.” 


140 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY. 

“ Cranky old thing! ” scolded Timothy. “ But 
I’m awfully glad you came, Amos, because I 
want your advice. I’m going to build a lookout 
on the shack roof. Do you think the timbers are 
strong enough? ” 

Amos gravely shook the “ timbers ” — old logs 
that Timothy had set into the ground himself. 
He looked at the roof, and he looked higher still. 
Then he looked at the ladder. 

“ Very particular about having your lookout 
on the roof? ” he asked. “ That tree at the cor- 
ner looks good to me. You could make a ladder 
to reach the roof, then set this one against the 
trunk of the tree where it touches the shack, and I 
rather think it would reach the lower limbs. I’d 
help you build a platform in the tree, and you 
would get a good deal better outlook. Of course, 
if you’re afraid to climb that high ” 

Timothy was diving into the shack. Out he 
came with a saw, hammer and hatchet. 

“ Get to work, fellows,” he shouted. “Amos, 
you tell ’em what to do.” 

Before dark the lookout was done — a six-foot 
square platform on the lower branches of a pine 


FORESTERS 


141 


tree — and each boy had tried it. Amos put a 
rough railing around it, and they carried up a 
covered box, and filled it with food, a blanket, a 
spy-glass that Mr. Johnston had loaned them, 
and a mirror to flash signals to the man on the 
mountain. 

That evening Timothy told the girls all 
about it. 

“ Gee, it's great,” he said, as they sat on the 
ledge in the yard of the little red house. “ We 
were going to have it on the roof, but then we 
should have had to cut down some trees to see Mr. 
Thissell’s house, and even then we couldn’t have 
seen it very well. Now we can look right down 
the hill and see his whole place, and as soon as we 
get a little trimming done, we can see the place 
where the new school is going to be, and the top 
of the mountain shows up just as plain — I’m go- 
ing up there as soon as Carmencita gets pleasant 
again, and arrange some signals with that man in 
case of fire.” 

“ Can you see the farmhouse? ” 

“ Only the roof, and you can’t see this little 
house at all because the trees hide it, hut, say, 


142 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

you get a splendid view of Mr. Johnston’s 
house.” 

“ Yes,” added Francis, “ and with the glass 
you can see the folks walking around on the pi- 
azza — their faces, I mean — and we saw Mr. 
Johnston driving down the road, ever so far.” 

“We ipust go up there to-morrow, girls,” said 
Trudy. “ We’ll get Belle and stay all day and 
have a picnic. We can watch, and you boys can 
do something else.” 

“ That’s good,” said Timothy. “ We’ll have a 
ball game. But we will be up in the afternoon. 
Perhaps there may be something else to do to the 
lookout.” 

Donald had arrived in time to hear Timothy’s 
description, and was curious to see what the boys 
had done. So, after the girls had gone to the 
shack next day, he told Miss Margaret that he 
was going for a horseback ride and might not be 
home for dinner. 

Abbott had made a fireplace on a ledge near the 
shack, and the girls were cooking their dinner 
when they heard Claire calling from the lookout: 
" I see a rider on a black horse.” 


FORESTERS 


148 


In a moment Donald cantered up the hill and 
leaped from his horse. 

“Is dinner ready?” he called. “Don’t you 
want some company? ” 

“ We want some help,” said Isabelle. “ You 
go down to the spring and get some fresh water. 
Here’s the pail.” 

“ I’m going up in the lookout.” 

“ You get that water first, or you don’t hare 
any dinner.” 

Donald sauntered away to the spring. He 
did not come back for so long that Belle and 
Trudy went to look for him. The pail was by 
the spring, but it was empty and there was no 
sign of Donald. They called and called, and at 
last, they saw, in the shadow of a big boulder, 
something move. The grasses shook. In a mo- 
ment a pair of feet waved, from under the 
boulder, then Donald’s legs began to ap- 
pear. He backed out from under the rock, 
dirtier than they had ever seen him, and more 
excited. 

“ There’s a bear’s den here,” he announced, 
“ and I’m going to get a big strong trap and set 


144 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

it and catch the bear, and have his skin for my 
room when I go to college.” 

It was really quite a large hole. Donald had 
wriggled into it until he was out of sight, and it 
went even deeper between two rocks. The girls 
looked in. There was no doubt that some animal 
had been there, for bones and feathers were scat- 
tered about the entrance, but Belle scorned the 
idea of a bear. 

“ There aren’t any bears around here,” she 
said. “ Pa says there hasn’t been a bear here for 
years. Lots of times the boarders start bear 
stories because they hear noises in the woods at 
night, but every morning the bear turns out to 
be somebody’s calf that strays away, and is just 
trying to follow somebody home, the poor little 
thing is so scared. I guess this is a fox’s hole. 
Those bones look like chicken bones to me, and 
foxes are terrible chicken thieves.” 

“ A fox skin wouldn’t be so bad, especially if 
it was a silver fox. They are very valuable. 
Anyway, I’m going to set a trap.” 

“ I don’t believe the Santa Claus man will let 
you,” said Trudy. “ I know he doesn’t like 


FORESTERS 


145 


traps. Anyway, this isn’t your land. It’s Tim- 
othy’s, and you must ask him before you set any 
traps on his land.” 

The girls spent the afternoon in the lookout, 
with the field-glasses. 

At stage-time they heard the automobile 
chug-chug up to the store, and then come nearer 
and nearer. 

“ Anj^body coming to your house, Trudy? ” 

“ I don’t know of anyone, Belle.” 

Claire was watching the big house through the 
glass. 

“ I can see the stage,” she called. “ It’s com- 
ing to the Johnstons’. There is Miss Margaret 
on the piazza, waving her hand to somebody — 
the stage is full of people.” 

“ Let me see.” Trudy took the glass. 
“ Why, that’s Francis — and Timothy — and a 
man and woman with them. Who is it? And 
there’s Mr. Johnston in the stage, too. — Oh, do 
you suppose — yes, Francis is leading them up 
the steps. Oh, girls, it’s his father and mother, 
come from Armenia! ” 

There was no more watching from the lookout 


146 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

that day. The girls hurried to the big house, 
and found Mr. and Mrs. Lane waiting to see 
them. They were just as nice as Francis’s fa- 
ther and mother ought to be, and everyone felt 
acquainted at once. After supper, they all 
walked over to the farmhouse, and sat talking 
about Todd’s Ferry and Armenia, about Mr. 
Turner’s maple sugar parties, and the new 
school that Mr. Johnston was planning, and the 
American mission school in Armenia, and most 
of all, about how necessary it was to find Mr. 
Thissell, and about the lookout in the tree, and of 
so many other things. They talked till after 
eleven o’clock ! 

Mr. Lane looked at his watch, and jumped up, 
saying, “ My goodness, Madam, we never sat up 
as late as this in Armenia.” And when he said 
good-night, he added to Timothy, “ Madam and 
I shall be driving about a good bit while we are 
here, and we’ll keep our eyes open for this Mr. 
Thissell. I shall know him if I see him, and if 
we find him anywhere, we will make him come 
back with us, and we won’t let him go again 
without settling this matter. You see, we may 


FORESTERS 147 

have to go away again, and this new school would 
be the very place for our Francis.” 

Mrs. Lane, walking home under the stars, with 
her arm about Francis, said, as Father and 
Mother had said, “ Oh, aren’t the people in 
Todd’s Ferry kind and good? See what they 
have done for our boy ! ” 

The boys and girls kept faithful watch on the 
lookout, but the days went by with no sign of 
Mr. Thissell. Mr. and Mrs. Lane, driving about 
the country with Mr. Johnston and Miss Mar- 
garet, inquired everywhere, but no one had seen 
him. 

“ Cheer up,” said Amos, “ perhaps we shall 
find him at the County Fair! ” 

“ County Fair? ” echoed Mr. Lane. “ Do you 
mean to say we are lucky enough to be here at 
County Fair time? ” 

“ Gee,” cried Timothy, “ I’ve been so busy I 
forgot all about the Fair,” and he capered about 
with sheer pleasure. 

Belle had not forgotten. She planned to enter 
some of her preserves, and Isabelle, who had been 
learning to cook from Grandmother, said noth- 


148 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

in g to anyone, but arranged to enter some of her 
home-made bread. 

County Fair was held at Prattville, everyone 
planned to go, and Amos said if they didn’t find 
Adoniram there, he, for one, would be about 
ready to give up. 

“ Oh, I’m sure we shall find him there,” said 
Mrs. Lane. “ From all you say, I don’t see how 
anyone could miss a County Fair. And then we 
will all be so nice to him, he will surely agree to 
sell his land to the school, even if he doesn’t feel 
he can afford to give it. We could raise the 
money to buy it from him.” 

Donald was quite impressed with Mr. Lane, 
who had been so far away and seen so many 
strange countries. Then, too, Mr. Lane could 
ride better than any of the soldiers Donald had 
seen at Fort Myer, and was teaching Donald. 
They rode together, and Donald tried to per- 
suade Mr. Lane to enter for some of the races at 
the County Fair, but he would not agree. Don- 
ald himself was going to try for one of the silver 
cups, and was practising every day. He got up 
early in the morning and rode alone, and if any- 


FORESTERS 


149 


one had been near the lookout at those times, he 
might have seen Donald stop frequently, tie his 
horse, and crawl into a certain hole under a great 
boulder. If that person’s ears had been keen, he 
might have heard a faint rattling and clanking 
like the noise made when a chain is moved very 
cautiously and softly. But there was no one 
near the lookout, and Donald never said any- 
thing about these stops at the boulder. When 
he himself was at the lookout, he never mentioned 
the mysterious animal whose lair he had discov- 
ered. The girls had forgotten all about it. A 
fox’s hole was nothing uncommon to them. 

One day Mr. Sims appeared in the yellow 
automobile. Trudy met him on the village road. 

“ Oh, dear,” she said, as he stopped for her to 
get in, “ are you going to take Claire and Isa- 
belle away? We are having such a lovely time, 
this vacation. I did hope they wouldn’t have to 
go to work till after the County Fair. You 
know we are going to have a County Fair over 
at Prattville next week. Can’t they stay for 
that? ” 

Mr. Sims laughed. 


150 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


“ Well, this is a nice way to greet a poor over- 
worked man when he comes up for a little vaca- 
tion of his own ! Of course they're going to stay 
for the Fair! They wrote me about it, and I've 
come up to go too! ” 


CHAPTER XII 


FIND THE CLOCK-MAN 

“ This makes me think of the story of Judith 
and Muster Day,” said Trudy to Miss Margaret, 
as they drove to Prattville on their way to the 
cattle show. “ All the people starting early in 
the morning, and going to see the sights — only 
they didn’t go in a yellow automobile.” 

“ There weren’t any automobiles then,” said 
Timothy, “ and there were soldiers drilling and 
riding on fiery horses — say, Uncle Sam, you wait 
till you see the races this afternoon. Those 
horses can run, I tell you ! ” 

“ I hope there won’t be anj r tornado to-day.” 
Belle was looking at the sky. 

Mr. Sims turned out to pass a truck full of 
3T)ung folks. “ Needn’t worry about any tor- 
nado,” he said. “ It looks to me as if everybody 
was going to have one splendid time.” 

When they reached the fair grounds it seemed 
as if Mr. Sims’s words had come true. Such a 
151 


152 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


crowd! And everybody laughing and interested, 
walking up and down, staring at the barkers 
along the Midway who shouted of the wonders 
that could be seen “ for only the small sum of 
a dime,” — pushing among the crowd gathered 
about the boys who were trying to ring the bell 
at the top of a high pole by striking a block with 
a hammer; stretching their necks to see the man 
doing high dives; and beyond the Midway, the 
exhibition tents. 

They parked the yellow automobile where 
Grandfather had unhitched Jack-horse and tied 
him at the back of the wagon under a tree ; Amos 
was waiting for them, and they started off to see 
the sights. 

“ Where is Mr. Johnston? ” said Amos. 

“ He had to wait for the noon mail. He is 
expecting an important letter about the school,” 
replied Miss Margaret. “ He said not to bother 
about him. He would find us when he came.” 

“ Where shall we go first? ” 

“ I want to see the cows and pigs,” cried Tim- 
othy. 

“ To the housekeeping department,” said 


FORESTERS 153 

Trudy, putting her arm about Belle. “ We want 
to see if Belle’s preserves took first prize.” 

“ Yes, let’s go there,” added Isabelle. “ I 
want to look for something.” 

“ Suppose each goes where he wants to,” sug- 
gested Father, “ and we all meet here at twelve 
o’clock for dinner.” 

“Well, now, wait a minute!” Timothy said 
emphatically. “ I’ve got an idea. I think we’d 
better all keep our eyes open for Mr. Thissell. 
Amos thinks he may be here, and we can ask 
him about the land again, if we find him. We 

could invite him to dinner with us, and ” 

“ Good idea! ” said Amos, “ and when he is 
full of our good dinner, he will be so pleased he 
can’t help agreeing to give his land! ” 

They all laughed, but Timothy was in earnest. 
“ He might be here,” he said to Trudy and Fran- 
cis. “ We’ll keep a sharp lookout.” 

Timothy and Francis went to the cattle tent. 
There were two lines of people wandering slowly 
in opposite directions between the pens where 
stood the cows, calves, sheep and pigs. Some of 
the cows were contentedly chewing their cuds. 


154 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

while others tossed their heads nervously, excited 
and afraid of so many strange people. There 
was a great crowd in front of one pen, and the 
hoys pushed their way through. The boards 
were just high enough so they could not see over 
the top, and Timothy’s foot went out to find a 
crack to climb by — just as he sprang up from 
the outside of the pen, something else leaped up 
from the inside, and a gray, hairy face, topped 
with two curving horns and ending in a scraggly 
beard almost touched his own. 

“ Baa-aaa-aa! ” said the goat, and Timothy 
fell backward, while the crowd roared with 
laughter. But Timothy was up again and 
scrambling to the top of the pen, but the goat 
had gone to the other side and was indifferently 
eating its dinner. Timothy, looking across, spied 
a man with white hair and beard, and a hat ex- 
actly like that of Mr. Thissell. He could not see 
his face, but he must find that man, and see if he 
was Mr. Thissell. Down scrambled Timothy 
again, ducking through the crowd while men and 
women scolded at him for pushing, and stepping 
on their feet. To get to the other side of the 


FORESTERS 


1 55 


pen, he had to go the length of the tent, and 
outside. When he got there, the man was gone, 
and Timothy wandered on again, alone, for 
Francis had lost him in the jam. 

He found Donald at the horse tent. 

“ Have you seen Mr. Thissell? ” said Timothy. 
“ I think I’ve found him, but I’m not sure. A 
man told me he came over here.” 

“ No — but come and see this beauty horse that 
has taken every first prize where she has been ex- 
hibited. And her jockey isn’t much older than 
I am. Come on — he lets me go in her stall. Oh, 
say, but she’s a beauty. He’s going to race her 
this afternoon.” 

The excitement of being allowed to go into the 
stall of a real prize-winner and chum with her 
jockey drove Mr. Thissell from Timothy’s mind. 
The boys stayed talking with the jockey till din- 
ner time. 

The girls had examined the cooking and the 
fancy-work. Belle’s preserves had taken two 
prizes, one first and one second, and Isabelle’s 
bread had been awarded an honorable mention. 
There was to be an aeroplane ascent and para- 


156 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

chute jump at two o’clock, and altogether there 
was a great deal to tell when the party met for 
dinner. 

The food was all unpacked, and Mother was 
counting noses, when — 

“Where is my Santa Claus man? ” cried 
Trudy. “ We can’t eat dinner without him.” 

“ And Stanley and Abbott — they were coming 
with him ! ” 

“ Yes, they told us to wait for them before we 
went into the forestry exhibit.” 

Father looked at his watch. 

“ Time they were here.” 

Amos was gazing down the Todd’s Ferry 
road. “ That looks like McAdam’s outfit.” 

It was the stage, with a party from Todd 
House. On the front seat with Mr. Me Adam 
were Mr. Johnston, Stanley and Abbott. They 
did not wave their hands, and when the stage 
stopped, they climbed slowly down and came 
soberly toward the group that was awaiting 
them. 

“ What is the matter? ” said Miss Margaret. 
“ You all look so solemn.” 


FORESTERS 


157 


“ We have had a letter from Washington,” re- 
plied Mr. J ohnston, “ and it is most important 
that we find Adoniram Thissell at once.” 

“ I’ve found him!” shouted Timothy. “At 
least, I guess I’ve found him, although I haven’t 
talked to him. But I saw him at the goat-pen, 
and the man in the bee exhibit said he had been 
there — anyway, a man who looked like him was 
there. He went over to the horse tent, and I 
was going to speak to him, but there was a jockey 
there who let us go in his stall, and I didn’t see 
Mr. Thissell. As soon as we eat dinner, I’ll get 
him for you. You needn’t worry any more about 
that. Come on, now, we’ve got an awful good 
lunch, and there’s going to be a parachute jump 
at two o’clock, and I’m terribly hungry. Let’s 
begin.” 

Stanley and Abbott were very quiet all 
through lunch and disappeared as soon as they 
were through, quite forgetting about their prom- 
ise to take the children through the forestry ex- 
hibit. But there was hardly time anyway, with 
the aeroplane ascent at two o’clock, and the races 
beginning at three. Timothy did not try to keep 


158 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 


with any of his people, but started off at once to 
hunt for Mr. Thissell. It was pretty hard to see 
sometimes, especially in a crowd, but he was not 
discouraged. At last he saw him — away across 
the race-track! He saw the white hair, and the 
long white whiskers, and the broad-brimmed hat! 
Away went Timothy around the long track. All 
out of breath, he came up behind the man and 
touched him on the elbow. 

“ Oh, Mr. Thissell, if you please, Mr. John- 
ston wants ” 

The man turned. 

He was a total stranger! Timothy had never 
seen him before and was so surprised that he 
stood staring. 

“ Guess you’ve made a mistake, little boy,” 
said the man pleasantly, but Timothy never even 
heard him. He was hurrying away as fast as he 
could to hide. After all he had said — after the 
way he had bragged about finding Mr. Thissell, 
it wasn’t Mr. Thissell at all ! Timothy was sure 
now that Mr. Thissell had not come to the cattle 
show. There wasn’t a foot of the place that he 
had not hunted over, and this was the only man 


FORESTERS 159 

on the whole grounds who looked at all like the 
clock-man. 

Late that afternoon, after the races were over, 
they all strolled back to the meeting-place, tired 
and dusty. They were ready to go home. 

“But where is Timothy?” said Mother. 
“We must find him.” 

From the deep back seat of the yellow auto- 
mobile came a low, slow voice, oh, so discouraged, 
not a bit like Timothy’s. “ I’m here,” it said. 
“ I got tired, so I took a nap. Say, that man I 
saw wasn’t the clock-man. He was somebody 
else.” 

“ Never mind,” said Miss Margaret, “ it won’t 
make any difference. We shall surely find him 
soon.” 

Mr. Johnston and Stanley looked at Abbott. 
He shook his head. “ Not now,” he said. 
“ Wait till we get home.” 

The ride home was quiet. Nobody said very 
much, not even Mr. Sims. The automobile 
stopped at the farmhouse, and at Mr. J ohnston’s 
request, waited for the others. When they were 
all there, he said, “ Before we separate, I have 


160 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


something to say. I don’t want to say it, but I 
must. I am sorry to tell you I have had bad 
news about the school, yes, very bad news.” 

Abbott sighed. 

“ The letter I waited for was from Donald’s 
father. He has been looking out for things in 
Washington for me, and he writes me that there 
is another site for the school much farther west. 
I knew that, but I knew too, that it would cost 
a lot of money to buy that western land, and I 
hoped that if we all gave the land here in Todd’s 
Ferry, we should be able to have the school here. 
Now it seems that the Government is in a hurry 
to begin, and the owners of the western land are 
working hard to have the school there. If we 
cannot tell them surely that this land is theirs 
within a week, the Committee will decide to buy 
the western site, and Todd’s Ferry will lose her 
School of Forestry.” 

He winked very fast, and looked up at the sky 
— anywhere, everywhere, except at the faces 
about him. But he could not help hearing the 
sighs, the long breaths, and he waited for the ex- 
clamations. 


FORESTERS 161 

At last — “We mustn’t allow that!” said 
Grandfather. “ Something must be done! ” 

“ Nothing at all can be done without Adoni- 
ram Thissell,” said Amos quietly. 

“ Oh, Timothy, I wish you had found him at 
the cattle show ! ” sobbed Trudy. 

But Timothy was not there. He was where 
Grandmother found him, after the rest had gone, 
in the secret passage, over the shed-attic; hud- 
dled on the floor, in the darkness, Timothy cried 
his heart out. 


CHAPTER XIII 


FIND TIMOTHY 

“ When I told that boy he could play all the 
rest of the summer, I didn’t mean that he was to 
spend all his time in bed,” said Grandfather, 
coming into the kitchen next morning. “ Here 
it is nine o’clock, and he isn’t down yet.” 

“ Never mind, Jonas,” said Grandmother 
softly. “ He was crying in his room last night* 
Pie feels terribly over this school matter. If he 
can sleep now, I’m going to let him.” 

It was ten o’clock when Trudy came from the 
little red house. She was very still, and sat in 
the big rocking-chair several minutes before she 
spoke. 

“ It’s a lovely morning,” said Grandmother. 
“ I’m frying apple turnovers for Timothy. 
Don’t you want one? ” 

“ I don’t feel hungry. Where is Timothy? ” 

“ He’s still abed. I really must call him.” 

She went to the foot of the stairs and called, 
162 


FORESTERS 163 

‘‘Timothy — Timothy — come, dear, it’s time to 
get up.” 

There was no answer. 

“ Mercy, I hope the child isn’t sick,” she said, 
going up-stairs. In a moment, she came down 
again, puzzled. “ He is up,” she told Trudy. 
“ But he hasn’t been in for any breakfast, and I 
haven’t seen him. He must have gone out very 
early. I wonder where he can be? ” 

“ Perhaps he’s up to the big house. I’ll tele- 
phone.” 

But Timothy had not been at the Johnstons 
— he had not been at the store, or down to Belle’s 
house. 

“ Run out to the barn, Trudy,” said Grand- 
mother anxiously, “ and tell Grandfather I can’t 
find Timothy.” 

Grandfather refused to be excited. “ He’ll 
come back all right,” he assured them. “ Prob- 
ably he went over to see Abbott and talk things 
over with him. He may have some scheme in his 
head for straightening out this school tangle. It 
would be just like him. Don’t worry, he can take 
care of himself,” 


164 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY 

Grandmother went to the pantry to put away 
the apple turnovers. “Mercy!” she cried, 
“ where is my bread? ” She looked in the dough- 
nut jar. “ And the doughnuts — Jonas, did you 
eat up all those doughnuts I made yesterday? ” 

“ I certainly did not.” 

“ Well, they are all gone.” She hurried back 
to the kitchen. “ My frying-pan is gone too. 
Its that boy! He has started out somewhere, 
and he’s taken food enough for an army ! ” 

Grandfather laughed. “ I guess if he stopped 
to pack up some grub he won’t come to much 
harm.” 

“ But, Jonas, we don’t know where he has 
gone. He never went away before without tell- 
ing us. I don’t like it.” 

“ Oh, probably he went up to the shack to 
stay,” said Trudy. “ I’ll run home and tell the 
girls and we’ll go right up there. We’ll find him, 
Grandmother.” 

“ Ask Donald and Francis to go over to 
Theresy’s and see if he has been there,” said 
Grandmother, still uneasj^. 

They found commotion there too. In the 


FORESTERS 


165 


night, someone had been into the barn and taken 
Carmencita. Abbott and Stanley stood staring 
at her empty stall. 

“ Can’t see who could steal that creature,” 
Stanley was saying as the boys came in. “ She 
makes enough noise to wake up everybody in 
Todd’s Ferry if any stranger goes near her.” 

“ It was Timothy,” cried Donald. 

Abbott turned swiftly — “ Timothy? what do 
you mean? ” 

“ Why, Timothy has run away. He didn’t 
come down to breakfast, and they thought he 
was asleep, but when Mrs. Todd went up to call 
him, he wasn’t there, and her doughnuts and all 
her bread, and her fry-pan were gone too, and 
now Carmencita’s gone ! I’ll bet he came and got 
her.” 

Abbott looked at Stanley. 

“ You told him the other day he could take her 
whenever he wanted to,” Stanley said. 

“ That part of it is all right, but the question 
is, where has he gone? ” 

“ The girls have gone up to the shack to see if 
he is there.” 


166 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

Aunt Theresy came out now, and heard the 
news. Of course she knew all about the school 
plan and the trouble that was threatening. And 
she knew Timothy Todd. She remembered 
what he and the rest of the “We Four — Lots 
More ” had done when trouble had threatened 
her. “ The child has gone after Adoniram,” she 
said at once, “ but which way he went, no one 
knows/’ 

“ Can’t anything happen to him right around 
here,” said Abbott. “ He has learned enough to 
forage for himself, and he can’t take cold sleep- 
ing out-of-doors when it is as warm as it is now. 
Did he take any blankets? ” 

“ I don’t know.” 

“You don’t think he will stay out all night, 
do you? ” said Donald. 

Aunt Theresy spoke. “ He’ll stay till he finds 
Adoniram Thissell! I know Timothy, and I 
knew his father before him, and Jonas before 
that. If a Todd sets his heart on anything, he 
will get it. I should advise some of you men to 
start out after him, or at least make some in- 
quiries round about somewhere.” 


FORESTERS 


167 


“We ought to have Amos here,” muttered 
Abbott. 

“ Well, you have,” came a voice behind them. 
“ What’s up? Any time you want Amos Bean, 
that’s the time he appears. What’s the matter? 
You all look as if you had lost your best 
friend.J’ 

“ It’s Timothy that is lost.” 

“Well,” said Amos, after he had heard the 
whole story, “ when I woke up this morning I 
felt something in my bones. First I thought it 
was rheumatism, but then I saw the sun was 
shining, and you can’t have rheumatism on a 
sunny day, so I knew it must be trouble. And 
this is it ! Let’s go up to the shack. I’m inclined 
to think Theresy is right, and Timothy has gone 
after the clock-man. He’s probably been to the 
shack, though. He would want some of the sup- 
plies he keeps there. I shouldn’t wonder if we 
found some trace of him.” He looked at Abbott 
and Stanley. “ With two professional woods- 
men in the crowd, it ought not to be so very hard 
to track a tenderfoot like Timothy.” 

Soon there was turmoil all over Todd’s Ferry. 


168 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

Timothy had been at the shack; the girls had 
found all the canned goods gone, and the best 
blankets missing, but there was no note or word 
of explanation. Telephones rang from house to 
house as folks asked each other, “ Have you seen 
Timothy Todd? ” 

But every answer was “ No.” No one had 
seen him, and at last Mr. Johnston said, “ He 
must have struck out through the woods. Get 
busy, now, you forest rangers. Timothy must be 
found.” 

Donald had ridden swiftly up to the shack as 
soon as he really knew that Timothy was gone. 
The girls were there, so he could not do what he 
wanted to, but as soon as they had gone back to the 
house, he had hurried up the hill again and had 
crawled into the “ beast’s lair ” as Timothy had 
named the deep hole under the boulder. Donald 
had a dreadful fear that Timothy might be there, 
but he had not dared to say a word. There was 
something under that boulder that only Donald 
knew anything about — a thing that Mr. John- 
ston and Amos would have smashed if they ever 
found it. Now Donald lit his flash-light and 


FORESTERS 


169 


crawled trembling into the deep, dark hole. 
“ Timothy,” he whispered, “ Timothy, are you 
here? ” But all was still, and there was only the 
thing itself, with its ugly steel jaws still yawning 
for any little animal that might creep into the 
cave for shelter. It looked so different to Don- 
ald now that he dragged it out angrily, broke it 
to pieces on the boulder, and threw the pieces 
deep into the underbrush. Then he leaped onto 
his horse and galloped away through the woods 
toward Prattville. 

Stanley had at last found a trail that looked 
as if Carmencita had made it; he and Amos and 
Abbott followed it through prickly berry-bushes, 
into swamps and over ridges until they came to 
the brook that ran into the lake. There they lost 
it, but, following up-stream, they spied a bit of 
paper from a cake of sweet chocolate caught in 
an eddy by the bank. 

“ He’s been here,” called Amos who saw it 
first. “ He’s eating chocolate as he goes along. 
He’s feeling better if he is hungry.” 

“ Taken to the water,” growled Abbott. 
“And he doesn’t know anything about riding 


170 


TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


with a pack. We shall soon find him now, for 
he’ll probably lose all his supplies.” 

Mr. McAdam had sent Bill toward the rail- 
road; Mr. Turner was driving along unfre- 
quented roads, looking for fresh tracks ; the girls, 
by Amos’s orders, had gone back to the shack 
and were watching from the lookout. Grand- 
mother, Mother and Miss Margaret waited at 
home, worried and anxious. ,And while they 
were all wondering and trying to find the miss- 
ing Timothy, he was driving Carmencita deeper 
and deeper into the woods. He w r ould not admit 
to himself that he was lost, but as he rode along 
he studied the little book in which he had written 
down the things Abbott had said about wood- 
craft. 

“ I b’lieve that Mr. Thissell went up toward the 
White Mountains,” he said to himself, “ for I 
heard him tell Grandfather that trade was better 
up near the big hotels, and that’s northeast from 
here. So all I have to do is to keep going north- 
east, and when I strike a hotel, ask ’em if he’s 
there. We can take the train back, and save time 
— this old burro-critter is the slowest thing I ever 


FORESTERS 171 

saw — get up, there, you Carmencita, I’m in a 
hurry! ” 

Carmencita turned her head. She did not need 
to look at the moss on the tree trunks to see 
where north was — she did not need to squint at 
the sun to find the west — she knew, by the in- 
stinct God has given the animals, where home 
was, and food, and shelter. So she only pulled 
at the rein stubbornly, and turned her head in the 
direction which she chose. The sun was high. 
Timothy knew that it was noon-time. “ Oh, I 
don’t care,” he said, “ go that way as well as any. 
I don’t know where north is, with the sun right 
overhead. I’m hungry.” He munched at a 
doughnut as Carmencita ambled through strange 
and unfamiliar woods. 

Abbott and his party followed the stream until 
they heard voices. They broke into a run, and 
found a camp-fire blazing merrily on the banks 
of the brook, with a dozen or more boarders 
from Todd House sitting about it, laughing and 
talking, and waiting for the kettle to boil. But 
Timothy was not there. 

“ Hello, Mr. Bean,” they called. “ Come on 


172 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 


over and have lunch with us. Bring your 
friends. We’re having a picnic.” 

“ So I see,” replied Amos, “but we’re not! 
We’re out after a missing boy. Have you seen 
Timothy Todd, from the hill, go by on a burro 
since you have been here? ” 

“ Why, no, there hasn’t been anyone here at 
all until you came.” 

“We found his tracks — a piece of sweet choco- 
late wrapper — a ways back in the brook, so we 
thought you might have seen him.” 

“ Oh,” cried one of the girls, “ that was a 
piece I threw away. I was watching it sail down 
the current.” 

Abbot looked at Stanley. “ Guess we’ll have 
to try another trail,” he said, while Amos ex- 
plained to the boarders. 

Stanley and Abbott were already hurrying 
back toward the village. The men in the picnic 
party got to their feet. “ You eat your lunch, 
and go home when you get ready,” they said to 
the women and children. “ We must help find 
that boy. Be sure you put out the fire.” 


CHAPTER XIV] 


“fire! fire!” 

“ We ought to help, too,” said one of the 
women. “ Let's start off up the hill now. We 
can eat as we go along.” 

They threw water on the fire, and scattered the 
ashes about with a long stick. They hurried so 
fast that no one noticed a mass of hot coals that 
fell into a dry hollow full of dead leaves. They 
were climbing the hill toward the shack before 
the little wisps of blue smoke curled up in the 
still air; no one was left to see the flames that 
ran about in the pine needles, and licked the dry 
berry-bushes. And then the wind, that had been 
still so long, decided to blow a bit; it found the 
little flames and chased them this way and that, 
and the faster they ran, the harder blew the wind. 

Trudy was in the lookout at the shack. She 
had an idea that if she watched Mr. Thissell’s 
house long enough, she must see him coming out 
173 


174 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

the door. It did not seem possible that he could 
stay away when the whole success of the new 
school depended upon his coming back! Belle, 
Claire and Isabelle were wandering about, look- 
ing for traces of Carmencita and Timothy. At 
the farmhouse, Grandmother was trying to do 
her work, but she spent more time at the door, 
looking down the road, than in the kitchen. 
Grandfather kept saying, “ Now, Mother, don’t 
worry. That boy will be all right.” Then he 
would have an errand out to the barn, and would 
make long stops in the road, shading his eyes 
with his hand and looking all about. But the 
road and the hillsides were all still and motion- 
less. There was no Carmencita, trotting home 
with a boy on her back. 

Mr. Sims had been down to the location, to see 
that the picture was going on all right. He 
drove up to the store on his way back, just in 
time to hear Mr. McAdam telephoning the farm- 
house to see if Timothy had been found. 

“What’s that?” said Mr. Sims, quickly, and 
when he heard the story, he rushed up to the big 
house as fast as the golden car could speed. 


FORESTERS 


175 


Trudy, in her lookout, was getting discour- 
aged. She had stared so long without seeing 
anything but grass and trees, and Mr. Thissell’s 
house, all quiet except for the bees flying in and 
out the little holes under the eaves ! She watched 
them, wondering how it looked under the roof, 
where they had their hives — suddenly she saw 
something moving, swaying, behind the house, 
away down the hill beyond the pine grove. It 
drifted up from the underbrush! She caught 
her breath. She seized the glasses — yes, there 
was a little blue streamer of smoke where no 
smoke ought to be! As she looked, another 

swept up at one side — they grew larger 

“Fire! Fire! Oh, girls, quick! A woods 
fire below Mr. Thissell’s house ! ” 

The girls raced back to the shack. Trudy was 
scrambling down the ladder. 

“ Get out the brooms,” she directed, “ all you 
can carry — and pails, and the pitchfork. I know 
where Mr. Thissell’s well is, and we can get water 
there. We can wet the brooms there, and fill the 
pails.” 

“Oh, dear, isn’t it awful!” wailed Isabelle. 


176 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“And the woods so dry. Everything will burn 
up!” 

“ We must get help,” said Belle. “ Oh, if 
Timothy was only here. He knows how to sig- 
nal the fire warden. Oh, if we only had a tele- 
phone in the shack. I’ll run as fast as I can to 
the big house, and call folks from there.” 

Claire, loaded with brooms and a great pail, 
was already staggering down the hill. Suddenly 
there came the sound of a horse’s neigh, and 
Donald rode up the path. 

“ Fire, Donald, — fire,” screamed Trudy, 
“ down behind the clock-man’s house. Go for 
help!” 

Donald wheeled his horse and galloped toward 
home, as the girls hurried down the hill. They 
had no thought of waiting. They knew what to 
do to save their beloved trees, and their one idea 
was to reach the danger-spot and do what they 
could till help came. They did not dream that 
someone miles away was summoning help faster 
even than Donald could gallop. 

High on the mountain, the fire warden was 
sweeping the country with his powerful glasses. 



“Fire! Fire! Oh, Girls, Quick!" 






FORESTERS 


177 


He, too, saw the wicked little blue streamers. 
He measured a moment on his map, then took 
down his telephone. Instantly the bells in the 
houses of Todd’s Ferry began to ring — “ Hello, 
this is the fire warden. Forest fire starting in 
the region between the Primeval Pines and 
Adoniram Thissell’s house. Traveling up the 
hill. Get there at once! ” And then, to the as- 
tonishment of some of the people he added, “ Go 
to Timothy Todd’s shack for apparatus, if nec- 
essary. He is well supplied.” 

Mr. Johnston got the message as Mr. Sims 
swept into the yard. Down the hill again sped 
the yellow automobile, stopping to pick up men 
on their way to the fire. Mr. McAdam drove his 
delivery truck — and Bill raced over to Mr. Per- 
kins’s barn for horses and wagon. They loaded 
spades and pickaxes into the machines. They 
hurried toward the hillside where now the smoke 
was growing ever thicker and thicker. Grand- 
father harnessed Jack-horse and Grandmother 
climbed into the wagon without even taking off 
her kitchen apron. But she stopped long enough 
to pack a basket with oil and bandages and 


178 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

soda. “ Someone may get burned. Father,” she 
said. 

The girls ran past Mr. ThisselFs house, and a 
little way below, met the women and children of 
the picnic party walking briskly along. 

“ What’s the matter? ” they cried, as the girls 
raced on. “ Is anyone chasing you? ” 

“ Fire! ” gasped Isabelle, pointing. “ Look! ” 

They looked — at the smoke, now mounting 
high in the sky — and then at each other. 

“ Oh, how terrible! Do you suppose it could 
have been our camp-fire? We were right over 
there! ” 

“ Well, you ought to know 7 better than to leave 
a camp-fire,” scolded Trudy; “ if you did it, after 
all the signs we have put up. But come along 
back now, and help put it out. W e’ll show you 
how.” 

They stopped at the well to wet the brooms 
and fill the pails. Soon they could hear the little 
flames crackling in the bushes, and feel the gusts 
of hot air when the wind blew toward them. 
“ Lopk out for your clothes,” said Trudy. “We 
mustn’t go too near. I don’t know that we can 


FORESTERS 


179 


do so very much until some men come to dig a 
trench, but we can beat out the little flames on 
the edges/’ 

“ Give me that fork,” said a woman. “ I can 
dig as well as a man.” 

When the yellow automobile flew up the road 
and the men tumbled out, they found a little 
band of women and children spread out in a semi- 
circle in front of the fire, beating at treacherous 
little spurts of flame in the dry grass, trying to 
dig in the hard ground that was so full of roots, 
and throwing sand from the road on the fire that 
ran so fast. The bushes below were blazing, and 
some of the dry pines were on fire in their lower 
branches. Abbott and Stanley came on the sec- 
ond load, with Amos, and some of the village 
boys. 

“ That grove is gone,” said Abbott. “ The 
pines are all burning, but we’ll try to save the 
rest of the trees.” 

Under his directions, the men and boys formed 
a line, and began to dig furiously, making a wide 
trench in the path of the oncoming fire. The 
little grove was fortunately separated from the 


180 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

other trees by an open space, with only a very 
few tall trees. Abbott’s plan was to try to keep 
the fire in the low bushes where it could be fought 
more easily. 

The trench grew. The women and children 
formed a line to the well, passing buckets of 
water down to the men, some of whom were beat- 
ing out the fire in the grass and low bushes. The 
smoke was dying down. In the excitement, 
Timothy was forgotten, and everyone started 
when a voice came down the hill — “ Say, come 
on up here, somebody! The fire has come around 
behind the house.” 

There, by Mr. Thissell’s back door, was Tim- 
othy on Carmencita. He shouted and called, as 
he slid off her back. But instead of coming 
down to help, he ran swiftly back to the shack. 
Men hurried up the hill. The woods behind Mr. 
Thissell’s house were blazing. The fire was rac- 
ing through the underbrush that grew all the way 
to the back door. 

“ Leave that lower fire to the women,” shouted 
Abbott. “ You men get up here, and get here 
quick! ” 


FORESTERS 


181 


“Amos,” yelled Timothy. “ Say, Amos, come 
and help me, will you? ” Amos ran up to the 
shack. Timothy was struggling to free the lad- 
der from the lookout. 

“ The bees ! ” he panted. “ The bees — we 
must save Mr. Thissell’s bees if the house is go- 
ing to burn. He cares more for his bees than for 
any living person — he told me so.” 

Amos cut the ladder loose, and they carried it 
down to the house. They set it up against the 
front porch. “ Hold on, Timothy,” said Amos, 
“ that’s no good. You can’t get in though the 
bee-holes. And there’s no window in that attic. 
We must get in through the door.” 

“ It’s locked — and the back door is fastened 
with a Dutch lock. I know all about the house. 
Here ” 

“ The roof is on fire! ” shouted someone. 

There was a call for water, and men seized the 
ladder, and climbed onto the porch roof. It was 
too short to reach the main roof, so they pulled it 
up and climbed again, then lowered it, that others 
might stand on it and pass buckets of water up 
to them. 


182 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY \ 

No one noticed when Timothy picked up a 
rock — no one heard the crash of glass when he 
smashed the kitchen window — no one missed him 
when he climbed inside — and, of course, no one 
could see him running up the stairs and hunting 
for the attic door. He found it after several 
trials, and clattered up the steep, dark stairs. 
The attic was very dark, very hot and very 
stuffy. He could hear the men on the roof just 
over him; the water dripped down through the 
loose, dry shingles ; light began to come in, flick- 
ering red light that was worse than the darkness. 
Holes appeared in the roof, wicked little black 
smoky holes. Now Timothy could see the bee- 
hives — square boxes full of frightened, angry 
bees. He must get those beehives down-stairs 
and out of doors, and he knew nothing about 
handling bees. And those bees were thoroughly 
excited and indignant — there were strange and 
most unpleasant goings-on in their quiet home, 
and they did not know what to make of it. But 
they were going to defend their home. When 
Timothy appeared, they must have thought he 
was the cause of all the trouble, for they flew at 


FORESTERS 


188 


him, and they stung wherever they could. He 
beat them off — and he lifted one of the hives — at 
least, he was trying to when a strong hand on his 
shoulder stopped him. 

“ Go down-stairs, boy,” said Mr. ThisselFs 
queer, flat voice. “ I reckon these bees will 
know me better than they do you. Ill lend to 
’em.” 

Timothy stumbled down the stairs, and out the 
now open door into the air, but he could not see. 
His eyes were puffed up, face, hands and arms 
were burning as if the fire had caught him, but 
he did not care. Mr. Thissell had come back, 
and they would have the school in Todd’s Ferry I 
For Mr. Thissell should never again leave 
Todd’s Ferry until he had consented to sell his 
land — Timothy would see to that, bee-stings or 
no bee-stings ! 

Grandmother saw him as he stumbled out the 
door. “ Oh, you poor child,” she cried. “ Mar- 
garet, look at Timothy ! ” 

Miss Margaret did not hear her. She had 
been watching the fire, and now she saw some- 
thing — Abbott saw it too, and drew a long 


184 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY* 

breath. The fire was going in the opposite direc- 
tion! The wind had changed just in time, and 
was blowing the fire back over the burned land. 
It was dying out. Mr. Thissell, coming out with 
a hive of bees, strangely quiet now, and not offer- 
ing to sting anyone, saw it. 

“ Guess the worst is over,” he said. “ Much 
obliged to all you folks for taking so much trou- 
ble to save my house. Where’s the boy that went 
in after the bees? ” 

“Went after the bees?” exclaimed Grand- 
mother. “ Is that what ails you, Timothy? ” 

Timothy mumbled. His lips were swelling 
fast. Mr. Thissell came up with a handful of 
mud. “ I’ll fix him,” he said; “ nothing like mud 
to take the smart out of bee-stings. You’ll feel 
all right pretty soon, boy. And don’t be scared 
— bee-stings is a sure cure for rheumatism.” 

“ Timothy hasn’t any rheumatism,” said 
Trudy, half-crying, “ and he is terribly stung.” 

Almost as if he had heard her, Mr. Thissell 
went on : “ Probably you never will have any 
rheumatism, having all these stings while you’re 
young. What made you go after the bees, boy? ” 


FORESTERS 


18 5 


Trudy answered for him. “ He said you 
thought more of the bees than you did of human 
beings/’ she screamed, “ and he was trying to 
save their lives.” 

“And if he hadn’t had implements to fight the 
fire at his shack, the whole woods would have 
gone, and your house and all your place, Ado- 
niram,” shouted Grandfather. 

“ Yes,” added Amos, “ and if the girls hadn’t 
known what to do with the things he had ready, 
they couldn’t have held the fire till help came. 
All this that they learned is what you call non- 
sense. It seems to me that their nonsense came 
in pretty handy for you, Adoniram.” 

Mr. Thissell looked around. He saw the holes 
in his roof — he saw the black woods behind his 
house, still smouldering here and there — he 
looked at the people — friends, neighbors, stran- 
gers ; men, women and children — who had come 
swiftly when need arose, but who would have 
been helpless before a mighty fire if some boys 
and girls had not learned just what to do in an 
emergency. He looked up at the little shelves 
under the eaves, where now the bees, slowly get- 


186 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY 


ting over their fright, were beginning to crawl 
again. He rubbed his hands together. 

“ I surely am greatly obliged to you all,” said 
the clock-man. “ But how did you come to dis- 
cover the fire? ” 

Grandfather spoke. “ The children were 
watching for you, Adoniram, so they were keep- 
ing a pretty sharp eye on your house. They 
want to see you for something particular. You 
know what it is. You come down to the house 
with me, and talk it over.” 


CHAPTER XYi 


GONE AGAIN 

“ But what made you go off in the night, 
Timothy, without telling anyone? ” 

Grandmother was speaking. They were in 
the farmhouse living-room, and Timothy’s 
stings had been bathed and wet with ammonia. 
All of the Todds and Johnstons had come home 
with Grandfather and Grandmother to hear 
Timothy’s story. 

“ Well, I wanted to find Mr. Thissell, and I 
couldn’t wait. I thought perhaps, if I went on 
Carmencita, and tried to do all Abbott had told 
me, I might come across his trail somewhere in 
the woods. I knew the rest of you would try 
telephoning to all the villages. But the sun 
went in, and I couldn’t tell the points of the com- 
pass ; and the woods got deeper and deeper, and 
I didn’t dare stop to light a fire, and, anyway, 
Carmencita wouldn’t mind me very well — she 
just wanted to keep on going, and by and by, 
187 


188 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY 

the first I knew I was hack where I started, and 
saw all you folks.” 

“And plenty of fire, too, didn’t you? ” grinned 
Arnos. “ But where did you come across Ado- 
niram? Lucky you found him — I was glad to 
have him come along and see that other folks do 
know something, after all. It will be a good 
thing for him to remember that your ‘ silly non- 
sense ’ saved his house. Where did you say you 
met him? ” 

“ I didn’t meet him. I never saw him at all 
till he came up in the attic behind me ! ” 

But all that was explained when the clock-man 
came. He had decided to stay at the farmhouse 
for a few days, he told them. And he explained 
that he had just happened to come back to his 
house to get some instruments and materials that 
he needed in his work. He had been, as they 
thought, over into New York State, and was 
soon going back for an autumn trip through the 
mountains. He had broken some of his tools, so 
came back for more. At least, that was what he 
said. 

Abbott and Stanley, with Francis and Donald, 


FORESTERS 


189 


stayed near the fire until all danger was past. 
Abbott said, when he heard that it was all caused 
by the campers, that he would go over to Todd 
House and read them a lecture; but Donald said 
he reckoned that wouldn’t be necessary — their 
own men-folks seemed to be doing that on the 
way home. At the village, everyone was talking 
about the fire, and how lucky it was that Tim- 
othy had stored apparatus at his shack — how 
very fortunate that the girls had been in the look- 
out — and then the story spread about the Gov- 
ernment School! Soon all of Todd’s Ferry 
knew that all the land was promised except the 
very middle section where the building would 
stand, and that Mr. Thissell, the owner of this 
land, was not in favor of the plan. And, worst 
of all, that unless he agreed, there would be no 
school in Todd’s Ferry ! 

“ I should think now he might change his 
mind,” said Mr. Perkins, while Mr. McAdam 
was sorting the mail, “ but Adoniram is so set. 
If he has said he will never give a foot of land 
for the school, you might just as well make up 
your mind he never will.” 


190 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get up a peti- 
tion? ” suggested one of the campers. “ I feel 
as if we were responsible for a good deal of dam- 
age around here, and we ought to do something 
to make up for it. If we all signed, and prom* 
ised to contribute some money toward the school, 
wouldn’t he be more likely to consent? ” 

“ No,” said Mr. Perkins emphatically, “ that 
would be the worst thing you could do. The 
more that folks want Adoniram to do a thing, the 
less he wants to do it.” 

The clock-man was acting in a very mysterious 
manner. He seemed perfectly willing to follow 
Grandfather all over the farm, and they appar- 
ently talked a good deal, but whenever anyone 
came near them, Mr. Thissell became as dumb as 
a clam, and so deaf he could not hear a word. So 
how could he hear Timothy telling about all the 
benefits of a Government School of Forestry, 
when, no matter how loud he shouted, all Mr. 
Thissell would do was to crook his hand behind 
his ear, and say, “ ITey? — What are you mum- 
bling about?” It made Timothy so cross that 
he failed utterly to notice the twinkle in Grand- 


FORESTERS 


191 


father’s eye, and he paid no attention to the 
strange fact that all the grown-ups had stopped 
worrying about the school. They hardly men- 
tioned it. But Timothy tagged Mr. Thissell all 
over the place for two days ; then he tried another 
plan. He got all his Government leaflets and 
put them wherever Mr. Thissell would be likely 
to sit down. They were beside his plate at meal- 
times; they were in his room; they were on the 
table, by the reading-lamp ; they were even in the 
barn. But Timothy never saw him reading 
them. 

Two days after the fire, Mother came over to 
the farmhouse. 

4 4 1 have come to invite you all over to the little 
red house to-morrow,” she said. 44 We are going 
to have a party.” 

44 Party?” said Timothy. 44 What for? I 
don’t want to go to any party till this thing is 
settled. I’m worried, I tell you.” 

44 Oh, Timothy, I do hope you will come! You 
see to-morrow is your birthday, and it is your 
party.” 

Timothy stared. Then he went to look at the 


192 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

calendar. Sure enough, to-morrow was Sep^ 
tember twenty-fifth, and that was his birthday ! 

“ It is the day you have looked forward to, 
Timothy,” said Grandmother. “ But all this ex- 
citement has made you forget. It’s the first 
birthday in your teens. Don’t you know you 
are thirteen years old to-morrow? ” 

“ And isn’t it lovely that Claire and Isabelle 
are here? Mr. Sims is going to stay, too, and 
take them down to the North Shore next day.” 

“ I want to ask Mr. Thissell to the party,” 
added Mother. “ Where is he? ” 

“ He and Jonas went to Prattville on busi- 
ness,” was Grandmother’s surprising answer. 
“ I’ll tell him when he comes back.” 

“ I don’t believe I want that old clock-man at 
my party,” said Timothy slowly. “ I’m about 
sick of the way he is acting. I know if we don’t 
settle this land business pretty quick, there won’t 
be any school in Todd’s Ferry.” 

Mother smiled. “ I’d let him come, if I were 
you, Timothy,” she said. “ Sometimes a party 
makes people good-natured.” 

“ Well, all right, I don’t care. Only I did 


FORESTERS 198 

think that saving his bees would have some effect 
on him. Say, what are you going to have to eat 
at the party? And who’s coming? ” 

That afternoon was the very longest that Tim- 
othy Todd ever spent. There seemed to be noth- 
ing to do. There seemed to be no one to play 
with. Everybody was mysteriously busy about 
something, or had vanished completely. He 
went over to Aunt Theresy’s with a note from 
Mother, asking her to the party; there was no- 
body home except Carmencita and the cow. 

Timothy stayed in the bam a while, and then 
left the note on the back steps. He strolled out 
to The Tablet, and sat under the Primeval Pines* 
but not even a party of boarders came by. At 
Mr. Turner’s house, he saw the housekeeper 
asleep in the kitchen; Mr. Turner was away, for 
the horse was gone from the stall. Timothy had 
wanted to talk over the matter of the old brooms 
— Mr. Turner had been the first person to give 
him any, when he had decided to make the shack 
a storehouse for fire prevention. Even the store 
was deserted. Mr. McAdam was alone, and was 
figuring his accounts — he said it was a hard job* 


194 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

and told Timothy to run away and not bother 
him. 

Back on the hill, it was about as lonely. The 
girls were at the little red house, helping Mother 
and Miss Margaret. They drove him away with 
shrieks when he appeared in the shed. “ Oh, 
don’t let him come in here! — Oh, he mustn’t see 
what I’m doing! ” 

“ Huh ! ” he muttered. “ They think they’re 
doing something wonderful. I don’t care! I’ll 
walk down the Prattville road, and meet Grand- 
father and Mr. Thissell, and get a ride.” 

He met Grandfather, jogging along with 
Jack-horse, but Mr. Thissell was not there. 

“ Where’s the clock-man? ” demanded Tim- 
othy, clambering over the wheel. 

“ Oh, he had to go away sooner than he ex- 
pected,” replied Grandfather, calmly. “ Get 
up, Jack! ” 

“ Go away! Without doing anything about 
his land? And you let him? And you drove 
him over to Prattville? Don’t you want the 
school? Now what are we going to do? — You 
turn right around, Grandfather Todd, and 


FORESTERS 195 

we’ll go after him. I will not give up that 
school ! ” 

“ Hold your horses! ” said Grandfather, pull- 
ing the reins away from Timothy's hands. “ I 
don’t know where he has gone. He didn’t say. 
All he did say was that he’d like to have you 
young folks still keep an eye on his house and his 
bees. He wanted me to say to you that he 
wished you would take a walk over to his house 
this afternoon, and see that everything was all 
right. He seems to have taken quite a liking to 
you, Timothy.” 

“ Well, he needn’t like me, because I think he 
is a horrid old selfish thing ! ” 

“ He asked me how old you were, and I told 
him you were twelve to-day, but to-morrow you 
would be thirteen.” 

At the farmhouse, the children, done with 
mysteries, were waiting for Timothy. 

“ We’ve all come to ask Mr. Thissell to the 
party,” they called. 

“ Can’t ever ask him anything,” said Timothy 
despairingly, “ for he has gone away, and that’s, 
the end of everything! ” 


196 TRUDY. AND TIMOTHY 

Amidst the tears and exclamations came 
Grandfather’s voice. 

“ Stop right where you are, children. No 
more crying. Timothy has not told you the 
whole story. Mr. Thissell has gone away, but he 
left a message. He asked Timothy to walk over 
to his house this afternoon, and see that every- 
thing was all right.” 

“And I’m not going! I don’t care what hap- 
pens to his house, or his old bees either! ” 

Trudy had seen Grandmother smile! And if 
Grandmother could smile when all the children 
were in despair, there must be some reason for it. 
Trudy’s heart leaped — she began to feel excited 

— something might happen 

“Yes, you are going, Timothy!” she cried. 
“ You are going this very minute, and we will 
all go with you! ” 

“ Yes, we will! ” 

“ Come on, now! ” 

Timothy did not want to go, but the others 
insisted, and finally dragged him along. Trudy 
skipped ahead. At the shack, they heard pound- 
ing in the direction of Mr. Thissell’s house. 


FORESTERS 197 

“ Perhaps he went home! ” 

“ Maybe he has changed his mind ! ” 

They ran down the hill. A man’s head bobbed 
up over the ridgepole. Amos was mending the 
roof. He climbed up and sat astride the saddle- 
board. 

“ What is all this? ” he called. “Another res- 
cue party? The roof is all mended. You should 
have come earlier to help.” 

“ Is Mr. Thissell here? ” shouted Timothy. 

“ Here — on the roof? No, I haven’t seen him. 
He sent word for me to come over and make the 
roof tight, and that’s all I know. Say, Timothy, 
I hear you are going to have a great celebration 
to-morrow. I’m coming, and I’m coming early, 
with all my appetite. Have a good big cake, 
won’t you? ” 

Timothy paid no attention. He turned to 
Trudy. “ I told you it wasn’t any use. He 
isn’t here.” 

Claire and Isabelle were watching the bees to 
hide their tears. A bee flew around the corner 
of the house. They followed idly, to see if he 
would go to the hives. He alighted on a piece 


198 TRUDY, AND TIMOTHY* 

of goldenrod by the front door, but they no 
longer looked at him. They had seen the note 
on the dark green door. They had read the 
name on it! 

“ Timothy! — Oh, Timothy, come here! Look 
at this ! ” 

Timothy came slowly. “ Well, what is it 
now? ” 

“A note for you! See? — Oh, read it quick — 
what does it say? ” 

Trudy dashed up as Timothy snatched the 
note and tore open the envelope. He read it, 
scowled, crumpled it into a ball and threw it 
down in the grass. He walked away. 

Trudy picked it up and smoothed it out. The 
girls, reading over her shoulder, saw this: 

“ Dear Timothy Todd: 

“ I am sending you a present for your 
birthday — to-morrow. 

“ Respectfully, 

“ Adoniram Thissell/* 

They did not catch up with Timothy until they 
were almost home. He was sitting under a bush 


FORESTERS 199 

by the roadside, pretending to watch the ants in 
a hill. 

“ What do you suppose it will be, Timothy? ” 
said Trudy. “ We read the note.” 

“ I don’t know, and I don’t care ! I don’t 
want his old present, and I won’t take it — so 
there! ” 


CHAPTER XVI 
timothy's birthday party 

The morning of Timothy’s birthday was clear 
and cool. Mr. Perkins, taking some passengers 
to the early train, noticed a bit of frost in the low 
places, but when he came back the sun had melted 
it all away. On the hill, by the little red house, 
the goldenrod and asters glowed in the sunshine ; 
here and there in the woods a maple tree flamed 
scarlet, and by the roadsides the sumach blazed in 
crimson. 

In the dining-room of the little house, Mother 
and the girls were setting the table for the party. 
Grandmother had made a birthday cake so big 
that there would be a generous piece for each one, 
and Miss Margaret was arranging thirteen can- 
dles on it. In the middle she put a little glass 
vase that, just before the party, would be filled 
with flowers. 

“ Let’s see,” said Mother, “ I think Timothy 
200 


FORESTERS 


201 


ought to sit here. Get the evergreen, Trudy, 
and you and the girls trim his chair.” 

Francis and Donald had gathered yards of 
ground pine, and made it into long ropes; now 
the girls twined them about Timothy’s chair until 
it looked like a soft, green throne. At the top 
they put a circle of blackberry vine that had 
turned a lovely red. “ That is the king’s crown,” 
said Isabelle. 

In the farmhouse, though, things were differ- 
ent. Timothy was still cross and disappointed, 
and too much disturbed about Mr. Thissell’s dis- 
appearance to realize that Grandmother and 
Grandfather were quite calm about the whole 
matter. Grandmother was making sandwiches 
for the party, and Grandfather was working in 
the field, exactly as usual. Timothy wandered 
about uneasily. “ Guess I’ll go up to the shack,” 
he said. 

“ That’s a good idea, but be home in good sea- 
son. We are going over to the red house right 
after dinner, and I don’t want you to be late for 
your party.” 

Timothy shuffled out the door without a reply. 


202 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

“ Poor little boy,” smiled Grandmother to her- 
self. “ How differently he will feel before 
night! ” And then she laughed softly, thinking 
of the surprise in store for him. 

At the store, Mr. Johnston and Mr. McAdam 
were sending a message to somebody in Wash- 
ington that Timothy had never heard of ; yet this 
unknown man, away off there, was helping to 
make a happy birthday for him. Amos was rid- 
ing in the train, keeping his hand on something 
in his pocket that was part of Timothy’s birth- 
day. And Timothy, hunched up in the lookout, 
stared down at Mr. Thissell’s house, with the new 
yellow patches on the roof where the fire had 
burned through, and never dreamed what was 
happening. 

About eleven o’clock he began to feel hungry. 
There was no food in the shack, or he would have 
made a fire and eaten his dinner alone. He be- 
gan to think about the party a little. He had 
caught a glimpse of the birthday cake in the pan- 
try, and Trudy had told him some of the goodies 
that Mother was planning. “ Might as well go 
to the old party,” he said to himself, “Aunt 


FORESTERS 203 

Helen makes pretty good brownies — and I heard 
Grandmother say chocolate frosting.” 

He did not eat much dinner, and Grandfather 
joked him, asking if he were saving his appetite 
for the party. In spite of Grandmother’s plan- 
ning, they were a little late, and most of the 
guests were out under the big pine on the ledge 
to welcome him. It certainly was a real party. 
The Johnstons and the Lanes were there from 
the big house; Mr. Turner and his housekeeper 
came; the children, of course, were all there, in- 
cluding Dave and Henry. Stanley and Abbott 
sat at either side of Aunt Theresy, and Carmen- 
cita, with Trudy’s pink sash tied in a great bow 
around her neck, grazed in the yard. Stanley’s 
camera was set up, and Mr. Sims was taking a 
picture. The big yellow automobile stood by the 
roadside. 

“ What’s the automobile here for? ” asked 
Timothy. “ And where’s Amos? ” 

“ I gave Aunt Theresy a ride,” replied Mr. 
Sims, ignoring the question about Amos. 
“ Come on, Timothy, hurry up — I want to take 
your picture.” 


204 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY* 


“ What for?” 

“ To put in the paper, because it is your birth- 
day.” 

How the grown folks laughed! And the chil- 
dren laughed, too, but not for the same reason. 
They thought Mr. Sims was joking. 

He took ever so many pictures — groups of dif- 
ferent people, but not many there knew that he 
and Stanley had taken pictures of the shack, and 
of Mr. ThisselFs house, and the pine grove that 
had been destroyed by the fire. Nor did they 
even suspect that these pictures would later be 
shown all over the United States to show what 
boys and girls could do! 

Then they played games, and Timothy had a 
good time in spite of himself. He forgot Mr. 
Thissell for a little while. In the midst of a 
frolicking game, Mr. McAdam drove up the 
road. 

“ Special delivery letter for Timothy Todd,” 
he called. “ Guess the President is sending 
birthday greetings.” 

“ Oh, what can it be? — Oh, Timothy, open it 
quick! — Who's it from? ” 


FORESTERS 205 

Timothy tore open the envelope. Everybody 
stood very still. The grown-ups looked at each 
other, and their eyes twinkled. 

“ It’s awful funny writing,” cried Trudy, 
peeping at the letter. “ What does it say? ” 
Timothy did not answer. He was reading the 
letter. He turned to the signature — then he 
swallowed hard, and scowled. 

“ I won’t,” he said. “ I— will— not ! ” 

Miss Margaret took the letter. “ Slay I read 
it, Timothy? ” she said gently. “ Will you let 
me read your letter aloud, dear? ” 

She did not seem a bit surprised as she read it. 
The grown-ups said never a word, but there were 
many ohs and ahs from the children. This was 
the letter: 

“ Me. Timothy Todd, 

“Honored and respected Sir: 

“ Wishing to show my appreciation of what 
you did to save my bees, my house, and other 
property from fire, a few days ago, I am giving 
you a present, as I understand this is your birth- 
day. I do not like parties, so I shall not come to 
yours, although I was invited > and I thank you 


206 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

for that. It is not convenient for me to send my 
present, either; I must ask you to take a little 
trouble to get it. Go to my front door. 

‘‘I remain, sir, 

“ Your obedient servant, 

“Adoniram Thissell.” 

“ Let’s go — oh, let’s go and see what it is! ” 

“ I know what it is — it’s a hive of bees, and he 
wouldn’t even bring it over. I don’t want any 
of his things. I won’t have his old bees! He 
told me he was going to give me some.” 

Mr. Sims was in the golden car. “ Come on, 
everybody,” he called. “ Get in front with me, 
Timothy. You’re the boss to-day, but we are 
surely going to find your present. Pile in, every- 
body — hang on anywhere!” 

Laughing and shouting, they pushed Timothy 
into the car, then climbed in until it looked like 
an omnibus. Mr. McAdam took some in his 
machine, and they sped away to Mr. Thissell’s 
house. 

It was just as quiet and deserted as Timothy 
had seen it in the morning, but on the green front 
door had appeared a patch of white paper, ad- 


207 


FORESTERS 

dressed in the same queer handwriting to Tim- 
othy Todd. Thoroughly interested now, Tim- 
othy jumped out and ran up the path. 

“ It says, ‘ Look at the Memorial Boulder by 
the Primeval Pines.’ ’* 

“ On to the Pines ! ” shouted Mr. Sims. 

“ I wish Amos was here,” said Timothy to 
Trudy. “ I didn’t think he would miss my 
birthday.” 

“ Your birthday isn’t over yet,” laughed Mr. 
Sims. 

On the Boulder was a box, done up in brown 
paper and tied with a pink string. Timothy was 
out of the machine before it stopped, and the 
paper came off that box in a jiffy ! The box was 
full of fresh honey, but no one wanted any now, 
for under the cover was another note. This time 
Timothy needed no urging. “ Honey is good 
with hot biscuits,” he read aloud, and then: 

1 ‘Now go to the place where you want your school, 
And don’t be too hard on a stubborn, old fool!” 

“Hurry! — Oh, do Hurry!” shouted Timothy. 
“ Go to the place where we want our school! ” 


208 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Oh, what does it all mean? ” cried Trudy, 
snuggling up to the Santa Claus man who was 
smiling all over his happy face. “You know, 
don’t you? ” She turned to look at the rest of 
the older folks. “ Timothy, they all know. It 
is something perfectly lovely! ’” 

“It is the very loveliest thing that has ever 
happened in Todd’s Ferry,” said Miss Margaret. 

A wild, unformed idea glimmered in Tim- 
othy’s head. He could not understand, but his 
courage came back, and his hopes about the 
school flew high again. Something certainly 
was going to happen. 

“ Can’t you make this old car go any faster? ” 
he asked Mr. Sims. 

Through the village, and down the grassy road 
they flew, until they reached the open space 
where Todd’s Ferry had hoped to have the Gov- 
ernment School of Forestry. The sun shone on 
the broad fields, on the forests at either side, on 
the mountain, straight ahead. Mr. Sims and 
Mr. McAdam parked the cars. “ There isn’t 
anything here,” said Belle. 

“ Over on the ledge,” ordered Timothy. 


FORESTERS 


209 


“ The note said ‘ The spot where you hoped to 
build your school,’ and that’s the identical spot.” 

They climbed the wall, and hurried across the 
field. Sitting on the ledge, back to them, calmly 
surveying the landscape, was a man. 

“ It is the clock-man! ” cried Francis. 

“ It’s Amos,” said Timothy. 

Amos turned and waved his hand. As they 
came nearer, he called, “ Well, you’re here at 
last, are you? I’m glad to see you. I generally 
go to birthday parties when I’m invited, but this 
time I had my orders to wait right here for the 
party to come to me. I’ve had quite a wait.” 

“ Where’s Mr. Thissell? What do you know 
about it? ” 

“ About what? ” 

“ Mr. Thissell’s present for me. He sent me 
a note to go to his house, and I went; and then I 
went to the Pines, and there was another note, 
saying to come here, and here I am. Where 
is he? ” 

“ I don’t exactly know where he is, but his 
present is here, all right. I’ve been guarding it 
for an hour or more.” 


210 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 

“ Give it to me. I want to see it.” 

“ You’re standing on it now. We all are. 
Look around — it’s all about us.” 

Timothy looked down — and up — and about — 
and then he understood. 

“Oh, my gracious!” he said, very quietly. 
“Amos, don’t joke any more. Has Mr. Thissell 
given his land for the school? Has he, really? ” 

“ No,” said Amos, “ but he has given it to you! 
Here is the deed, all recorded. I went to Con- 
cord this morning, and had it fixed up. Ado- 
niram never goes back on anything he says, and 
he said he would never give a foot of land to the 
school, but after you children showed him a thing 
or two, he came as near changing his mind as a 
Thissell can. He talked it all over with Jonas, 
and Mr. Johnston, and a few more of us, and 
finally cooked up the scheme to give the piece of 
land to you. He says you are to do what you 
like with it.” 

“ What I like? Well, gee, I’ll give it to the 
Government quick as ever I can. Say, come 
on, now, let’s get home and fix it up. We 
haven’t got much time.” He turned to Mr. 


FORESTERS 211 

Johnston as an awful thought came. “ It isn't 
too late, is it? ” 

Mr. Johnston turned to the road and beck- 
oned. Ben Dobson came across the field on the 
run. “ Telegram! " he called. “ Telegram for 
Mr. Johnston." 

“ Here's the answer to that, Timothy," said 
Mr. J ohnston, as everyone crowded about to hear 
what he was saying. “ I knew what you would 
do, so I sent a wire to Washington telling the 
committee that it was all right. This telegram is 
their reply. They say, ‘ Todd’s Ferry School of 
Forestry assured. Congratulations. Thanks of 
the Government to all who so nobly responded.’ " 

Timothy drew a long breath. 

“ Gee! " he said. “ This is the best birthday 
I ever had. I think Mr. Thissell is all right. 
I guess I’ll let him give me some bees, after 
all." 

“ By the way," said Amos, “ that reminds me. 
This has been so exciting I nearly forgot it. Mr. 
Thissell told me to say that when the school was 
done, if there was a tower on the place, he would 
contribute a clock for it — and he said he’d put it 


212 TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, 

in himself, then he would know it was done 
right! ” 

“Three cheers for Mr. Thissell!” cried Ab- 
bott. 

IWhen the noise had died away, Amos spoke. 
“ Isn’t there any supper to this birthday party? 
I had to miss my dinner to get back in time to 
carry out my part of the surprise. Seems to me 
I heard some remarks about a birthday cake. I 
hope it is a big one. I’m ready to eat my share 
of it.” 

Mother laughed. “ It certainly is time we 
went back.” 

Later, Timothy, seated on his evergreen 
throne, his birthday cake flaming with its thir- 
teen candles in front of him, said thankfully, “ I 
shall never forget this birthday as long as I live, 
on account of Mr. Thissell’s present! ” 

“ But,” teased Amos, “ you gave his present 
away almost before you got it.” 

“ Yes,” Grandmother answered for him, “ and 
that is the best thing about the whole birthday. 
Timothy has not only had one himself, but he 
has given a birthday to the ‘ Todd’s Ferry 


FORESTERS 213 

School,’ and who knows how many other people 
may remember that birthday as long as they 
live? ” 

For a moment they were all silent, for it 
seemed as if they could see already the great 
buildings that would rise on the lovely green 
slopes facing the mountain, and surrounded by 
the forests that they would protect. It seemed 
as if the voices of the boys and girls who would 
come from near and far sounded in their ears, 
and above the voices they heard, ringing clear 
from the high tower, the chimes of Mr. Thissell’s 
clock, summoning the students to come to Todd’s 
Ferry School, and learn the wonderful secrets of 
man’s greatest friends, the trees I 


The Stories in this Series are: 

TRUDY AND TIMOTHY 
TRUDY AND TIMOTHY OUT-OF-DOORS 
TRUDY AND TIMOTHY AND THE TREES 
TRUDY AND TIMOTHY, FORESTERS 

























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t' 







